


Ghost

by Stellalana



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Alternate Universe, Battle City Arc, Child Abuse, F/M, Human Experimentation, Only some of this is canon, Physical Abuse, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Build, Time Manipulation, Virtual World Arc, We finally made it to the Virtual World arc, sue me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2018-10-12 18:52:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 22
Words: 63,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10497372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stellalana/pseuds/Stellalana
Summary: You had lived for four years in one of the labs Gozaburo Kaiba had built. Their purpose: Creating and training soldiers and human weapons. But after Seto Kaiba took over Kaiba Corporation, there was no more use for the labs. The new CEO had given you your life back, your freedom, and you felt you owed him everything.You hand-picked a select few from the labs after they disbanded and threw together a glorified bodyguard unit to protect him from the shadows, which was going well until you got wind of a plot to kill him and his brother during the Battle City semi-finals. You would have to enter the tournament and make it onto that blimp if you had any hope of protecting the Kaiba boys.





	1. Introduction

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So you know how I said I don't have time to update Pardon my French twice a week anymore because I've got three ballgowns to make in the next four weeks?  
> WELL  
> I thought a good solution to that problem was to start another fic. Good plan? Good plan.
> 
> **As of August 16th 2018 this chapter has been re-written and updated because the first iteration was garbage and needed to be fixed OwO

_“Don’t forget to register and pick up your Duel Disc, because exactly one week from today my Battle City Tournament begins!”_

You craned your neck upwards to watch Seto Kaiba fly over your head in a KC helicopter, his flashy white trench coat billowing around his legs from the wind swirling around him. You took a sip of your latte and dug your phone from your pocket, glancing over your chat log with your teammates and confirming the announcement they were all watching on the television. The intel Iris had gotten you on the tournament had been good, she’d got Seto’s arrival on his chopper almost down to the minute. 

Now, all you’d need to do was enter said dueling tournament and make it to the top eight. Doll had been spending most of her time this past week hacking into the Kaiba Corporation database to gather information on the plans for Battle City. From what she’d dug up, you knew the semifinals would take place on a blimp which would be heading straight to Alcatraz, the former site of one of Gozaburo Kaiba’s many weapons testing facilities.

So long as Blade was able to get the rare card you had sent him to retrieve, you’d have no trouble getting into the tournament. According to Iris, Domino City housed a game shop with quite the shady owner, a ‘Ghoul’ who would do anything for a good card. Doll was writing up a lovely looking dueling background for you, with a fake name and some small tournament wins that wouldn’t draw attention. Combined with a rare card next to your photo, you’d be in in no time. 

You hopped off the bench you’d been sitting on and tossed your empty latte cup into the garbage, walking past a young man you recognized as Insector Haga on your way back to your team’s townhouse. It sat in the heart of Domino City, only a few blocks from the natural history museum Seto had announced his tournament above. Its ugly brick exterior hadn’t been washed in years, and at this point it could probably do with a good sandblasting. You could see Doll’s silhouette in the lit bay window as you headed up the front steps. 

“Blade got the card,” Doll said the moment you entered the front door, “I’m putting it in your profile now.”

“Good.” You nodded, slipping off your boots and setting them on the mess of a shoe rack before stepping into the home. 

So far, everything was going according to plan. Though your group of glorified bodyguards to the Kaiba brothers had only been formed for a few months at best, you seemed to be all working together very well. Blade was doing everything possible to make the four of you enough money to live comfortably, Doll was gathering information and coordinating each of your missions, and you were protecting Seto Kaiba to the best of your ability. He hadn’t died yet, so you were going to consider it a victory. 

You sat down on the couch next to Doll and turned your attention to the television, the newscasters discussing the Battle City announcement and how to enter. Doll shifted her weight next to you and leaned back against the pillows behind her, your falsified duelist profile on her laptop screen. Her snow-colored hair fell in perfect curls around her pale skin, and she touched her black stiletto nail, which matched her black dress and eyeliner, to her black lips. 

Doll was a woman straight out of a black-and-white movie; she only had two shades to her, and aside from the hair she’d been like that for as long as you’d known her. Her white hair was the result of one of the lab experiments, which had drained the pigment from her hair and skin, leaving her beautiful red curls white as snow, and he already pale ginger complexion even paler. 

James came in from the kitchen with a warm mug of tea and watched you change the channel to a cooking network before taking a seat in the armchair next to the couch. You barely acknowledged him, merely nodding to his presence, your eyes locked on the television. Of the four of you, James was the eldest at thirty-three, and kept to himself unless he was needed for a mission, which usually involving keeping one of the mercenaries from Tokyo from dying after something went wrong.

Under normal circumstances, it would probably be pretty weird for four people of all different ages to be living under the same roof when none of you were related, but all things considered your life was in a pretty weird place for an nineteen-year-old. Two years ago, you would have never imagined yourself in this position, a member of a secret, unofficial bodyguard squad for Seto and Mokuba Kaiba. Further back, six years ago, you would have never imagined yourself and your only friends to be highly trained Weapons and Anomalies split amongst various mercenary groups. Then again, what child pictured herself a glorified science experiment in a high-security military lab at the order of Gozaburo Kaiba?

Originally there had only been one lab, located in a small, nameless town in Siberia. Gozaburo chose Russia for their lax human trafficking laws and policy on staying out of his way; they didn’t ask questions and only expected a little hush money in return. The Russian lab trained soldiers of all sorts, bred for war and trained in assassinations. Doing so well, it was only natural Gozaburo would get confident and create more labs to train and grow additional Weapons.

The second lab was built behind high electric fences and skilled gunmen in Omachi, close enough to Domino that he could keep an eye on it but just far enough that he didn’t have to get his hands dirty. That was where you were sent. It was a much smaller lab, only about half the size of the Russian lab, made specifically for studying and creating Anomalies. Including yourself, there had been fourteen of you. For the most part, the Japanese lab was focused on creating the most powerful killing machines that could be sold to the highest bidder in war times. 

Two years after the creation of the Japanese lab, a third lab was erected in Binghamton, close enough to Wall Street that Gozaburo could easily manipulate anyone he needed to. As such, the New York lab mainly specialized in training weapons in political espionage. 

“Look this over, tell me how you like it,” Doll snapped you out of your musings and plopped her laptop on your thighs. You glanced over the very professional, new identity you would be taking in one week. Two small tournament wins in Japan and one second-place overseas in America, inconspicuous enough that no one would care to look into them. Especially not with the very alluring ritual monster Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. She’d look good in your deck next to her ritual summoning spell, good enough that anyone who’d try to question your tournament entry would overlook it for the chance at the card. And for good reason; it was an expensive find, and Blade was pretty furious with the amount of dirty work he was made to do in exchange for it. 

Then you glanced to your photo, and the false name below it. “Lee, really?”

“It’s a common name.”

“It’s going to get me kicked out,” you frowned, “entering the tournament under a false name is grounds for disqualification.”

“You’re worried about the rules now?” Doll rolled her big eyes.

“It would take long enough to trace the tournament wins. I’d be in the semi-finals by that time... but a false name is easy to pick out.”

“So what do you want to use? Your real name?”

“Hell no.” You sighed and passed the laptop back to her, “Just use my code name.”

“How is that any better?”

“You can’t enter under a false name, but the rules say nothing about a nickname,” you shrugged her off, “I can argue the loophole if it comes down to it.”

Plus if anyone targeting the Kaibas saw you in the tournament, they’d know you by your code name. 

“Fine.” Doll returned her gaze to the laptop screen and changed your name. You brought your hand up on the armrest and leaned over, pressing your cheek into your palm and looking back to the cooking show on the television. 

The best day of your life had been the day Gozaburo Kaiba threw himself from the top of his empire. It had been the best day of many of the Weapons’ lives, actually, the first day many of you had seen sun in years, tasted freedom. On that day, an immediate switch from weaponry and military to gaming had taken place in the company, which meant there was no use for the labs anymore. It also meant complete chaos, releasing over a hundred weapons specialists, assassins, spies, and scientifically created mutants after years of being locked away. Firstly, it had meant a bloodbath for most of the scientists and guards that looked over the labs. Then, with seemingly nowhere else to go, many of the Weapons and Anomalies formed mercenary groups within their respective countries, that for a long time fought within themselves for power. 

Eventually, once the fighting settled down, the world ended up with three large mercenary groups specializing in all the ugliness humans like to pretend they’re too good to pay for. Murder, lobbying, illegal weapon sales, if you can name it, it has a price in the little underworld Gozaburo inadvertently created.

There were three main crime syndicates that were created from the dismantling of the labs: New York, Warsaw, and Tokyo, each named after the capital city their leader lived in and operated from. 

The most powerful of these three groups was New York, also called the “Modern Day Mafia,” lead by one of the two Anomalies created in Binghamton, Ice Queen. She was a cold, irreverent woman who controlled all the various branches spread across the United States, with over a hundred operatives from the three labs, and specialists from outside; rogue government agents, political officials, and other normal humans who wanted to stir up trouble and make a little money for it. 

Warsaw was run by an Anomaly referred to as Rat Tail, and was the second of the three mercenary groups, which controlled the majority of Eastern Europe and a large chunk of India. Rat Tail had moved the group’s headquarters from Russia to Poland after assassinating the previous group leader and fleeing Russian persecution.

Finally there was Iris, who controlled Tokyo and the branches spread throughout China and South Korea. She was about a few years older than you, young, naive, with doe-eyes and big dreams. Easy to manipulate. You liked to think yourself good friends with her, keeping close to her to ensure if anyone was doing the manipulating, it was you. She was technically your boss, if only because your group of was set up in Japan with her permission and under her jurisdiction. It was your idea to create the group to protect the Kaiba brothers after the events in Duelist Kingdom when they had been kidnapped by Pegasus. 

You’d recruited Doll-- your cellmate from the lab and perhaps one of your only real friends-- from Tokyo. She knew you felt indebted to Seto Kaiba for saving you from a life of human experimentation, and was happy to help the cause. She brought with her Blade, a Weapon and her partner from Tokyo. You still didn’t know him very well, but he brought in good money and didn’t talk too much, which was just fine with you. He was good with a sword, quiet, and efficient. 

You’d also brought in a man named James, a scientist and your doctor from the lab, whom you’d saved the day of the takeover when he had almost been executed by the furious Weapons and Anomalies who’d escaped their cells. Had it not been for you threatening to end anyone who so much as touched James, he would likely be dead right now. Naturally, he was quick to accept your offer. 

You spent your days trying to live a somewhat normal life and your nights keeping an eye on the Kaiba brothers from the shadows. Your only wish in life was keeping Seto and Mokuba Kaiba safe from harm, whether they knew about it or not. There were not many instances of you having to really guard them-- most everyone in the mercenary groups knew you were protecting the Kaibas, so they refused to fulfill hits on them-- but when you had to you did so quietly. 

Under Gozaburo Kaiba's orders, you had been experimented on to no end. Sometimes you felt like more of a monster than a human, despite your perfectly normal outer appearance. Admittedly, you probably had a less monstrous ability than some of the other Anomalies; time manipulation was not very visually jarring. It allowed you to be silent, efficient, and invisible. You were created by Gozaburo to be both an ideal assassin and a war machine, pumped full of so many chemicals and cells that you weren’t quite sure how much of you was really you anymore.

Your code name was Ghost.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a fic I've been wanting to write for over a year now. The premise is one I've thought over like a million times. I've got this big backstory and all these crazy characters. Plus the Virtual World is my second favorite arc and I really love Battle City soooooooo I really wanted to write something in that time.  
> Which means that there's gonna be a lot in here that isn't canon. But a lot of it still will be!!!
> 
> As of right now I have no plans of a schedule for this fic like I do PmF. It's kind of something I'll put up when I have a new chapter in the right order, since a lot of my thoughts are completely out of order right now. Especially with the format this story is going to take. It also kinda depends on if you guys even like this premise-- it's kinda crazy. This chapter is also a lot of introducing everything so hopefully you guys don't think it's too boring. 
> 
> So yeah. Please tell me your thoughts on this! I know there's basically no Kaiba in the first chapter, and it's a lot of OCs, but I'd like to know if the premise is interesting to you. Ugh I need to stop and just post this thing already @-@


	2. Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that way I'm planning to write this whole fic is in alternating chapters. Odd chapters will be the present Battle City story, and even chapters will be dreams, flashbacks, memories, etc. I thought it would be an interesting way to write through a lot of the trauma I've built up for the reader character without going through 10 chapters before we get to the main story. 
> 
> ALSO: I'd like to iterate that the mature tags and rating are there for a reason! This fic will have a heavy emphasis of mental and physical abuse, so please keep that in mind! If you're not comfortable wit that sort of thing, this might not be the fic for you :)

_‘I’ve given you a reason to live, a strong body. I’ve consented to your childish demands. You should be down on your knees thanking me.’_

_The table was cold, icy cold. Carefully cleaned, sterilized metal beneath your bare back, prickling at your spine. Your ankles and wrists strapped down so tightly with thick leather straps that you couldn’t feel the blood in your hands or feet. Your head sandwiched between two rubber stoppers to keep you from thrashing and breaking your own neck._

_‘The only reason you are alive right now is because of my generosity.’_

_Three men over you, silhouettes against the nauseatingly bright light above their heads, each dressed in pure white lab coats. A small metal table with wheels on your left, decorated with clamps and knives and syringes of mystery medications, viruses, cells. A two way mirror to your right, men in suits and military uniforms behind it; men who observed your progress, who asked when you would be done, who wanted to use you._

_‘You will act amicably. You will act properly. You will obey me, or you will suffer the consequences.’_

_A needle is in your arm, plunging milky white fluid into you. One of the scientists says something to another, but it doesn’t make any sense, it doesn’t sound like an actual language. It is technical jargon. The third man knows you like to know what is happening to you, it makes you feel like you have control over the situation, like you are in on it all. He tells you they are cells, they are different from the usual cells that are normally put in you every morning, they are not meant to assist your rapid healing. They are an experiment. But he does not tell you what the experiment is. That is normal._

_There is a second needle in you, it is stuck in you like an IV drip, but the bag hanging above you is not clear like IV fluid, it is red. Red. Red like blood. It shimmers in the bright light of the lab. It drips into the tube, into your arm._

_Drip._

_Drip._

_You feel hot. Hot like fire. Fire in your arm, where the fluid enters your bloodstream. It burns. You want to rip the needle out, but your wrists are bound. You jerk your arm and your wrist chafes against the leather strap holding you down._

_Fire._

_You feel the fluid moving through your body, up your arm, across your chest, into your heart. Your heart. Then it is pumping everywhere, everywhere, through your entire body. Crawling down your stomach, down your legs, down your toes. Up your neck, in your head, in your brain. Fire, everywhere._

_You’re sweating. Crying. The sweat and tears feel wonderful, cooling down your body. Your body. It burns. You want to scream, god do you want to scream. But you fight the screams, fight them. You’re not allowed to scream. The louder you are, the more likely he will get angry, screaming is not acting properly. Screaming is not acting amicably. Screaming is not strong. You absolutely must not scream, not while he is here._

_Two of the scientists are gone, behind the two-way mirror where the computers and the cameras and the machines are. Monitoring you, monitoring the fire in your veins, monitoring how quickly your body heals the damage it is doing. The third man is still in the room, taking notes. Shining a light in your dilated pupils. Asking how you feel. You are terrified that if you open your mouth to tell him, you will scream. You shake your head. You clench your jaw._

_It feels like fire. You do not know how to say it without speaking. You say nothing._

_He adjusts one of the readers on your chest that has begun sliding off on your layer of sweat. Latex gloves on your bare skin. Bile rises in your throat, but you shove it back down and force out another round of tears instead. If you open your mouth to throw up you will scream. You cannot scream._

_The men behind the two-way mirror are talking, you can hear them. They ask about your pain tolerance, they ask how much this test hurts. They ask why, if it hurts so much, you are not screaming. Are you just that strong? You would be the perfect assassin if you can be so silent when you are in searing pain._

_Searing._

_It is an apt word, it reminds you of how much fire is pumping through you. You look up to the bag, it is only halfway empty. How long have you been here? Your breathing is heavy, you have to work hard to push the air out of your nostrils, it makes you even hotter. It would be easier if you were panting through your mouth. Easier. Easier._

_What if you scream?_

_No, no, no. That is not an option. You will not scream. You will not make a sound. You will breathe through your nose until this trial is over. He is here. He is watching this test. If he is not happy with your performance, he will punish you in the only way that will make you respond. No, that child doesn’t deserve that. He is sweet, innocent, with messy hair and doll eyes. He will not suffer for your mistake._

_‘You will not disobey me.’_

_You could count on one hand how many times you’d disobeyed Gozaburo Kaiba in the four years you spent at the Lab. This was not one of those times._

_The third man tells you the test is almost over, you are doing well. The men in military uniforms are leaving, they have seen enough, they are satisfied with your performance. Gozaburo is leaving as well, he has said nothing but he does not deem dissatisfied. In a moment you will be able to scream, you will be able to throw up, you will be able to show weakness._

_The moment you are allowed to, the moment everyone is gone from the room behind the mirror, a defeated scream rips through you. It relieves so much pressure, it relieves the pounding in your head and the sweat all over your skin. The sound distracts you from the fire in your veins. The scream distracts you from what is happening to you, happening regularly, will keep happening._

_‘So long as you are here, you will do what I say. And you will be here for a very long time.’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys don't mind the length of this chapter. Especially with the way I'm writing the past tense stuff, I know it's a pretty stark contrast to my other fic, but I still hope it's enjoyable to read. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the alternating chapter idea. I really have no idea what I'm doing haha.


	3. Let the Games Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's a duel in this one, so if you find reading duels boring feel free to skip it! With the nature of Battle City there will be a couple of duels written but hopefully they won't be super boring to read. I learned that writing them takes foreverrrrr! I had to go through all my cards and build the reader a deck and then the other duelist a deck and then make a fake duel and ugh. WORK.

Two days before the start of the Battle City tournament, you took a long walk to the game shop Iris had mentioned on the other side of Domino. You wore a pair of black jeans and a low-cut purple shirt that made your eyes pop, just in case you needed some extra sex appeal to help you get in. You also had a knife slipped into your knee-high black boots just in case it was too much sex appeal. 

As you entered the shop, you noticed the place was almost completely empty other than a stack of Duel Disks on a shelf behind the counter and a computer monitor on top of said counter. A scruffy looking man with beady eyes grinned at you the moment the door closed behind you, gesturing for you to come closer. His hair was tied back beneath a bandana, and his cheeks and chin were covered in patchy stubble.

“I’m here to register for the Battle City tournament.” You announced, making your way up to the counter and placing your hands on the edge.

“Of course,” he nodded, pulling up a screen, “Your name?”

“Ghost.” 

He raised an eyebrow to you, but obligingly typed your codename into the database.You really hoped that profile Doll had made was enough to get you into this tournament, because you didn’t want to stay in this shop for a moment longer than you had to. 

“Oh my,” he said, “That’s an interesting card you’ve got there.”

“It is.” You said simply, eyes flashing to the back of the monitor to avoid his hungry gaze. He started typing something else into the computer, though you could not see what the monitor had up on it. You tapped your finger on the countertop slowly, evenly, to keep yourself from getting annoyed, and wondered if he was tampering with anything in the KC system. 

“Congratulations. You qualify.” He said slowly, reaching to the shelf behind him and pulling down one of the remaining boxes, before handing it to you. The disgusting grin was still all over his face, eyes dark, and you could practically smell his desire to get his hands on your Queen. Of course, you would not be letting that happen.

“Great,” you muttered icily, wanting to get home as quickly as possible and take a shower as hot as it could go to burn the feeling off of your body. 

“Do be careful walking home now Miss,” he hissed as you opened the door to leave his sad little shop, “Never know who might be out there trying to take advantage of a defenseless girl.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be fine,” you rolled your eyes and resisted the urge to give him the finger before closing the door behind you.

\-----

As Battle City Commissioner, one of Mokuba’s (mostly self-assigned) duties was to go through the profiles of all the duelists entered in the tournament and make sure they weren’t breaking any rules. He also had to check the rare card they had entered with and run it through the database, making sure they didn’t have any rarer cards they were holding out on.

For the most part, the computer did all the work for him, checking the duelists’ backgrounds, tournament histories, cross-referencing them with all the information Kaiba Corp. had on file. But he still liked knowing who was going to be dueling, what kinds of decks they might have, and any problems they might start. 

When he came across a profile simply under the name “Ghost” he wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Surely, no one would be dumb enough to enter Battle City using a fake name so obvious when it was clearly written in the rules. Although, now that he thought about it, there wasn’t exactly a rule against entering under a nickname. People like Insector Haga and Dinosaur Ryuzaki did so, it was just that their nicknames were a little less conspicuous than something like Ghost. 

As he was about to let the little technicality slide and move on to the next profile, he stopped to look over to the duelist’s photo, and blinked a few times in disbelief. There was something just too familiar about the shape of your face, the height of your cheekbones, the way your hair fell against the sides of your face just so. The way your intense eyes stared back at him, just like when he was just a little kid. 

Mokuba swallowed hard, trying to shake the feeling that he knew that woman, the one calling herself Ghost. Even though you were paler than you had been, even though you had that same, jaded look in your eyes that his brother did now. The look of someone that had grown up way too fast. What had happened to you in the six years he hadn’t seen you?

He debated showing his brother the photo of their old childhood friend, ask him if he was going crazy or if it really was you. But, he knew exactly how much his brother despised even thinking about you, much less talking about you. Even though Mokuba never held it against you that you had just disappeared on them he knew his brother always did. Mokuba knew it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t control having to move, but Seto didn’t see it that way.

He tried to shake the thoughts from his head, whispering a “Good luck” to your picture before he moved on to the next duelist to continue working.

\-----

The day the tournament began, you knew you’d have to get up early and get six locator cards by the end of the day if you had any hope of making it to the semifinals. As much as you disliked the idea of going after obvious weaklings, you made the decision to have your first duel with someone below your skill level. You couldn’t take the risk of losing your first duel and only locator card, ‘Duelist’s Pride’ be damned. Doll had spent the week leading up to the tournament researching duelists and their rarest cards, and she’d found one young man in particular with a star rating that barely qualified him for Battle City and a card that would synergize with your ritual deck very well. Blade was already searching the city for him.

The moment you awoke, an hour before the official start of the tournament, you started getting ready. You did your makeup and packed some of it into one of your larger handbags, along with a change of clothes and your toothbrush. You debated what to wear as you searched your closet before settling on something simple and inconspicuous, slipping on a grey fitted button-up shirt and a pair of skinny jeans, and topping off with a black leather jacket and a pair of knee-high black boots. 

You slipped your phone into your jacket pocket and strapped the Duel Disk onto your wrist, noting how heavy and cumbersome it was. You placed your deck into the disk to hold for now and slung your purse over your shoulder before exiting your bedroom and locking it behind you, then bounding down the stairs. When you stepped outside, you knew it was too warm for a leather jacket, but figured you’d need it on the blimp. You shoved the sleeves of the jacket up as high as they would go and kept it unzipped, checking the time to see that the tournament would officially start in half an hour. You decided to grab a coffee from the little cafe near the townhouse while you waited. 

As the barista was handing you your latte, you got the coordinates of your first opponent’s location from Blade, near the middle of the city. If you hurried, you could make it there just as the tournament started, and ensure you would be the young man’s first duel. You darted out of the cafe, walking swiftly through the city blocks and noticing how traffic had come to a complete standstill at the order of Seto Kaiba, musing over the fact that he could shut down an entire city so easily. You checked the GPS on your phone, following the path and weaving around the other pedestrians on the sidewalk, until you made it to Domino Park.

You spotted your target standing by the edge of the pond in the middle of the park, a boy who couldn’t be older than sixteen, with olive skin and silky brown hair. He looked foreign, he had probably traveled to Battle City from overseas. Too bad he wouldn’t be enjoying the tournament for very long. You glanced around the park and noticed there wasn’t anyone else around with a Duel Disk on their arm, so you were in a good spot to challenge him without any competition. 

Seto Kaiba’s deep, booming voice rang throughout the city, announcing the official start of his Battle City tournament. You shot Doll a text telling her to keep you updated on the other duelists you were watching, including Seto and Mutou Yuugi. After going through your deck one last time and taking a deep breath, you walked up to the boy at the pond’s edge and fixed a plastic smile onto your face. 

“Care to be my first opponent?” You asked coolly. 

The boy spun around to face you, eyes lit up in excitement at his first challenge. He had a young face, with round cheeks and sparkling brown eyes, features still painted with childish innocence and naivety.

“Sure!” He replied excitedly, sliding his deck out of the deck box strapped to his belt and beginning to shuffle his cards. You did the same, keeping your eyes focused on the cards rather than the lamb, before exchanging decks to cut. You slipped your deck back into your Duel Disk and he did the same, taking his place about fifteen feet away from you. The two of you activated your Disks, holographic projectors shooting out on either side of you and landing safely on the ground. They let out a whirring, computerized sounds, and lit up in a watercolor of rainbows. 

“You can go first,” you offered, trying to sound friendly though you knew your deck did better if you went second anyway. 

“Thanks!” He chirped, drawing his card and scouring over his hand to formulate a strategy. Really, knocking him out of the tournament this early was doing him a favor. He was way too sweet to hold his own against the more experienced, trash-talking duelists that had taken over the city. He set a monster and a face-down card then turned the duel over to you, a smile plastered on his face. 

You admittedly felt pretty bad for the kid, since your opening hand was about as good as you could hope for. You summoned a Senju of the Thousand Hands and searched your deck for your Ruin Queen, finding her near the bottom, and added her to your hand. You then activated an End of the World, using the Tri-Horned Dragon in your hand as fodder to summon your Queen on the first turn. 

You used your Senju to attach his set monster, which turned out to be a Sangan, allowing him to search his deck for a monster. He ended up choosing a Sengenjin. You moved to attack his life points with your Queen, which he took without retaliation, letting out a groan and bracing his arms in front of his face to shield from the wind that suddenly hit him. You set a trap card and ended your turn, wondering what his face down card could be, as it didn’t negate your summon, your spell, or your attack.

The boy drew his card and grinned, his poker-face could use some work. He activated a continuous spell, Wave Motion Cannon, and summoned a Battle Ox. It looked like he was running a Beast-Warrior deck. He used his Battle Ox to attack your Senju, and you took the three-hundred points of damage gracefully, feeling a breeze blow through your hair as your monster was destroyed. He set another card and ended his turn. 

“You’re pretty good,” he said as you drew your card, a Pot of Greed, which you quickly activated. 

“Thanks,” you replied simply, drawing your two cards. You summoned a DD Warrior Lady, then used her to attack his Battle Ox. Though you would take two-hundred points of damage, it wouldn’t matter if you wiped him out with Ruin. Due to her special ability, your Warrior Lady destroyed his Battle Ox as she disappeared from the field as well, leaving him wide open for an attack.

The moment you ordered Ruin to attack, the boy activated a Nightmare Wheel with a victorious glint in his eye. You felt a little bad that the glint wouldn’t last for very long, about as long as his brief time in Battle City. You revealed your face down card, Solemn Judgement, and paid half your remaining life points to negate the activation of his trap. Immediately, the excitement disappeared from his face as he realized he was finished. 

Your Queen ended his day in the tournament, a record victory for you. You set your deck back into its slot and retrieved the holographic projectors from the sides of the battlefield, taking the naive boy’s locator card and Magical Mallet. 

“You’re really good! That was awesome. I hope you make it to the finals and win for me.” He said, still with a smile on his face.

“I’ll certainly try my best.” You fixed your own smile to your lips and nodded. 

The two of you went your separate ways, and the second you were out of the park you received a text from Doll, congratulating you on your first win. Now you only needed four more to secure you place on the blimp. You swapped the Snatch Steal in your deck out for the Magical Mallet, tossing the prior into your purse and crossing the street to the Domino Commons. You passed by a few duels happening while you scoured the masses of people for a second challenge. 

You noticed a crowd gathered around an obnoxiously loud blonde-haired teenager dueling an equally loud kid masquerading as a psychic. You slipped into the crowd and realized you recognized the blonde, Jonouchi Katsuya. After the number of fights he’d had with Seto, your team had him on watch, less as a potential threat and more as entertainment. You were not surprised why his skills were constantly discounted when he pulled a Roulette Spider and won the duel through, essentially, pure luck. You also nearly rolled your eyes out of your head when he had to pep talk the boy he’d defeated, who was having a mental breakdown after his loss. The sappy reunion with the faux-psychic’s brothers was enough for you to gag, so you walked away from the duelists and continued your search for someone to battle.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic where I don't want to write it solely from the reader's pov. I wanna try to put a focus on other characters in here, too, mainly Kaiba and Mokuba. This fic is also a lot faster paced than Pardon my French so I'm trying to find a balance between writing description and writing real-time happenings. This is hard lol. 
> 
> But I do hope you're enjoying it so far! <3


	4. Little Kaibas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SPORADIC UPDATES ARE SPORADIC

_The first time you’d met Seto and Mokuba Kaiba was during a company dinner, hosted at the Kaiba mansion, with all of the top executives of Kaiba Corporation. Your father was a member of the board of directors, so you had been to quite a few of these parties before. As always, the Kaiba mansion was decorated extraordinarily, sparkling lights strung around the bannisters and above the banquet tables, cascading soft yellow light to the partygoers down below. Pure white tablecloths and cherry mahogany chairs danced along the perimeter of the spacious ballroom that spilled out beneath the imperial staircase._

_Although the decorations were clean and elegant as always, your priority at every one of the Kaiba Corporation parties was to find and devour as much cake as possible. Gozaburo Kaiba’s head baker was a French woman named Amelie who always kept her grey hair in a braid and only wore the color white, and she made the most amazing cakes. For the Christmas party the year prior, she had made a spectacular tiered chocolate cake with little sugar pearls and pretty silver piping, and it had been the most delicious thing you’d ever eaten. So, it had been your mission to get a slice of her desserts at each company party ever since._

_You remember quite clearly how your quest for sugary confection had been interrupted by the Kaiba brothers, and though you really wanted to shove past them, or better yet invite them to join you, you had to be the perfect lady to please your father. He and Gozaburo had stopped in the middle of the ballroom to shake hands and exchange pleasantries, leaving you, the children, to simple stare at each other. Seto was shorter than you by only a few inches, thanks to you hitting puberty early, and was dressed in a pressed white suit and a blue undershirt that matched his eyes. Hidden behind him was an even smaller boy, who couldn’t have been older than five or six, with a wild mane of hair and big grey eyes that were filled with fear and uncertainty._

_It was your first time seeing your father’s boss with any children other than Noa, whom you had been friends with before the accident. These boys were much different from Noa, both completely lacking in the carefree air that had surrounded your late friend. The younger looked almost terrified to be at this party, clutching to his brother’s arm like he might die if he let go, while the elder had this determined fire burning in his eyes despite his bored expression._

_“These are the boys I adopted a few months ago, Seto and Mokuba,” Gozaburo said to your father._

_“Ah, I’m happy to hear they’re settling in,” your father’s voice replied overhead, but you kept your eyes locked on the brothers._

_You remember your father and Gozaburo began talking business, which you blocked out completely, offering a smile to the younger Kaiba and reaching your hand out. He stared at it with his wide eyes, then looked up at the elder-- Seto-- who merely nodded. Mokuba took your gloved hand in his own and you two shook, before you offered it to Seto. You remember Seto staring at your purple satin ballgown, covered in shiny silver beading and sequins, as he seemed to debate whether to take your hand or not. Before he could decide, your father nudged you away and Gozaburo told the two that they had other business. You went your separate ways, and you returned to your quest of finding and eating some delicious cake._

_You remember not being disappointed._

_The second time you met Seto Kaiba was much more eventful, and turned into many, many meetings afterward. Before his accident, you and Noa Kaiba had studied together frequently, taking private business, science, and music lessons in the Kaiba mansion. You lived very close and were only two years older than Noa, plus you were much smarter than him and pushed him to study harder, which was the only reason Gozaburo had ever invited you over. He did not care that the two of you got along well, you even shared the same favorite color and played classical music together._

_Since Seto was now poised to become the heir to Kaiba Corporation, he understandably had a lot of catching up to do in terms of studying. When your father suggested you join the boy in his classes to help push him like you had Noa, Gozaburo begrudgingly agreed. A week later, you had arrived at the Kaiba mansion at eight AM sharp, dressed in a pretty blue sundress and pure white tights. Seto was already in the library, in the middle of a lesson, when you sat down beside him and opened up a notebook. It was review for you, but you took notes anyway, since it was an excuse to use the new gel pens your mother had bought you. You remember them being pastel colors with tiny specs of glitter in them. You remember Seto scoffing at them._

_Seto looked exhausted, he had bags under his eyes and his fingers were shaking like he hadn’t eaten all day. You remember offering him the apple your mother had packed you for a snack, and him taking it and scarfing it down like it was his last meal. You remember the welts on his knuckles like they’d been slapped with a ruler. You remember the glare he had shot you when you looked at him with sympathy._

_Daimon had returned shortly after the elder Kaiba brother finished your apple, and you remember shoving it into your bag so neither of you would get in trouble. You moved onto a lesson you had not had yet, so you had to actually listen to the lecture and read the books and color-code your notes so they were easy to read. You remember Seto being faster than you when it came to the material. He was much smarter than Noa, and rather than you being the one to push him, Seto ended up being the one to challenge you. He was younger than you, but he might have been smarter than you, or perhaps he just worked harder than you. He wanted this life more than you-- no, he needed this life more than you._

_For the first month or so, outside of your lessons you and Seto did not speak much to each other. You spent some time at the Kaiba mansion outside of your lectures simply because you liked it there, and Gozaburo did not care so long as you did not distract Seto from his studies. You spent a lot of time with Mokuba, he was sweet and kind and ignored by just about everyone else. The only person who seemed to care about him was Seto, and he was much too busy with studying to play._

_The two of you took music lessons together on Wednesdays, you had been playing violin for years, and after Noa’s accident, your teacher was just happy to have someone to teach piano to again. Mokuba seemed like he enjoyed piano, he was a fast learner and liked playing duets with you. He had a hard time reaching the octaves at first since his fingers were so short, but eventually learned to adapt. When he played, his unkempt hair would bounce up and down and side to side. You remember Mokuba’s favorite thing to play was the first movement of Mozart’s Sonata No. 16. He said it was something their mother would hum to Seto, and Seto would hum to him when they were the orphanage._

_You remember asking Mokuba once what their mother was like, when the two of you were coloring with some brand-new pencils your father had brought back as a gift from overseas. You remember Mokuba breaking down, his tears soaking through the pages of the coloring book. You remember rubbing his back and shushing him, wondering what you had done to make him so upset, as he rubbed at his eyes and apologized over and over and over again. You remember telling him he did not need to apologize for crying, but he continued anyway. Eventually he told you that he did not remember his mother, she had died before he even knew her. You did not ask about the details surrounding her death, for fear of causing him to start crying again. You remember ripping out the wet pages of the coloring book and starting on a new page like it had never even happened._

_Mokuba had had a small collection of Duel Monsters trading cards that he enjoyed showing you every chance he got. He did not have enough to play with in a duel, he especially did not have enough for two people, but he still liked making up stories for them and telling you which ones were his favorites. He had gotten them from various places, a few from the orphanage, a few from his late father, a few from his big brother’s equally small collection._

_One afternoon, after you had finished studying some of the intricacies of the stock exchange with Seto, Mokuba had dragged you to his bedroom on the opposite side of the house to play. He had pulled out his cards, which he kept hidden in a shoebox so none of the servants would throw them away, and laid them all out in front of you._

_“Which one is your favorite?” He had asked, pointing to the cards, some of which were worn at the corners or slightly bent at the edges._

_You remember wanting to tell Mokuba you did not have any interest in the game at all, so you did not have a favorite. But he had this adorable sparkle in his eye that made you want to make him happy._

_“This one,” you remember pointing to the Wingweaver because she had big, pretty wings and a long, gold dress that looked like one you’d seen in a window display._

_“You’re such a girl,” Mokuba had told you with a laugh, before picking up the card which was in much better condition than some of the others and thrusting it toward you._

_“What’s this for?”_

_“It’s your birthday present!” He had said excitedly._

_You had taken the card carefully and thrown your arms around the young boy in a tight hug, grinning from ear to ear. You did not remember ever telling Mokuba when your birthday was, but you liked his present much better than the pretty gold locket your mother had given you or the butterfly hairclip your father had given you. His present was filled with love and sentiment, and you decided to keep that card loved for as long as you lived._

_Seto had not acknowledged your birthday until a week later, he had been too busy studying to notice the date. Not to mention, since the two of you hardly talked about anything other than your private lectures, he had never asked when your birthday was and you had never told him. You didn’t tell him much of anything unless he asked, which he hardly did._

_“It was your birthday last week,” he murmured absently when Daimon left the room as the two of you worked on physics._

_“Yep,” you had replied, trying to hide your excitement, “How’d you find out?”_

_“Mokuba got upset with me when he found out I didn’t know.”_

_You remember chuckling at how warm a heart the youngest Kaiba had. The two of you quickly stopped talking when Daimon re-entered the room to check on your progress, though he quickly left again to tend to the needs of Gozaburo._

_“So?” You had prodded._

_“So what?”_

_“Aren’t you going to wish me a happy birthday?”_

_“It’s not your birthday anymore.”_

_You remember rolling your eyes, “Then wish me a belated birthday.”_

_You remember him closing the physics book and opening an English book, which meant he had, again, finished the material before you did. You hated that he was smarter than you, but at least you had a glowing personality to make up for it. He, on the other hand, had been becoming colder and colder over the past few months. The welts on his knuckles and bruises on his wrists were probably a big factor, but you did not say anything about them._

_“Happy belated birthday,” he had said before opening his notebook to a clean page and beginning to copy line after line of English phrases._

_“Thank you,” you had smiled, getting to work on the last physics problem so you could catch up with him._

_You had not been able to catch up to him that day, or the days following. Saying Seto Kaiba was a genius would have been an understatement, not only was he incredibly smart for his age, but he was more driven than anyone you knew, older or younger. It felt like no matter what you did, you’d be following after him for the rest of your life._

That was true, even to this day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I haven't updated this baby in a couple weeks, between focusing on the fashion show, my portfolio presentation, and finishing up Pardon my French, I've been a busy busy bee. So hopefully you guys enjoy this out-of-the-blue update! Sorry that this story doesn't really have a schedule like my other fic, it's really just when inspiration strikes! 
> 
> Anyway, let me know what you thought of this chapter, comments and criticism keep me going. I really like writing about smol Seto and Mokuba, their personalities are really similar to when they're older, but way less mature. I tried to capture that well but ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	5. The City is a Battlefield

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WELL SHIT I haven't updated in almost 2 months. Considering I update the other story weekly, this much time between updates feels really bad and I'm so sorry. I've had hella writer's block on this chapter for a while now and only finally figured out where I wanted to go with it. Maybe it's just because I'm not used to writing duels, I'm not sure. But there's finally an update, yay!

It was the second day of the tournament, and Isis Ishtar had won the two duels she had fought thus far in Battle City thanks in part to her necklace. She had not had to use it to cheat in her battles, no that hadn’t been quite necessary, but the item showed her who she was meant to duel in order to face her destiny. The necklace hadn’t steered her wrong; it had sent her to duelists who were skilled, but easily defeated by her deck. 

She was sitting on a bench beneath a clock in the heart of the city, a can of juice in her hand while she flipped through her deck absently and went over the previous duel. There was nothing she could have done better, no mistakes, and as long as she kept it up, she would see Marik soon. She would bring him back home, and no one would get in her way. 

Isis finished her drink and set her deck back into her pocket gingerly before closing her eyes in concentration. Beseeching the necklace to show her whom she was meant to duel next, she relaxed her muscles and cleared her mind, allowing her vision to be flooded. Pure, white light flashed against the back of her eyelids, before clearing to reveal a young woman with intense eyes and a determined frown, standing against a wall in an alley close by. 

The vision disappeared, the necklace’s soft hum halting and leaving Isis staring at the town before her once again. She gathered herself for a moment, stood up from the bench, and threw her empty juice can into the garbage next to her. Brushing her skirt down and returning the cloth face mask to its original position over her mouth, she turned toward the alleyway where her next opponent awaited her. 

\-----

It was nearly two, all things considered you were making decent time. Your second opponent in the Battle City qualifiers had played perhaps the slowest deck you’d ever seen, intending to cause you to deck out while he stood behind a wall of high-defense monsters. Once you weaved your way around his strategy, it wasn’t difficult to claim victory, but it had taken much longer than any duel had the right to. 

Really, you’d rather speed up the process of collecting locator cards. You had three in your possession now, and you wondered if you could convince your next opponent to double their wager. Of course, you’d need Doll to do a background check on their deck first to be sure you would win, if you were set back time-wise any more you ran the risk of qualifying too late. 

You were busying yourself reading through your team’s message group, Blade and Doll debating back and forth between potential challenges that would be an easy win for you. Truthfully, you were confident enough in your dueling abilities to go up against the next person who challenged you, but the time limit and stakes were enough to caution you against such actions. 

“This seems a lonely place to take a break.” An even voice hummed beside you. You flickered your eyes from your cell phone screen and tilted your head to the side, where a hooded figure stood at the mouth of the alleyway. Backlit by the soft glow of the sun, you could only make out the shape of a female body in a long dress, face mostly covered by some sort of cloth. The Disk on her arm meant she was a fellow duelist in the tournament. 

“That’s the point,” you replied casually, casting a glance to the rooftop of the building opposite you, where Blade was perched and leaned over to take a photo of the woman who had appeared before you. Your phone buzzed in your hand to signal its arrival into the group chat for Doll to run a check on her. 

“So then, you’d be opposed to me joining you?” 

_She has a mask on, I can’t find her in the database._

“Knock yourself out,” you said calmly, pushing yourself off the wall you had been propped up against, “You have a name?” 

“Isis.”

No last name, and either way you didn’t think Blade was close enough to hear her and relay the information to Doll. Your phone was still in your hand, but it would be rude (and a tad suspicious) to send a message. Looks like you were going to have to make a judgement call. 

“Well, Isis,” you began coolly, slipping your phone into your pocket and turning your body fully to face her. “By the looks of things, you’re a duelist yourself. Do you have any locator cards on you?” 

She took a few steps into the alleyway, enough into the shadows cast by the tall buildings so you could see her better. She had caramel skin and dark hair peeking out from behind her hood, which was decorated by an ornamental gold piece bearing an eye shape and a small emerald. Other than her blue eyes and the bridge of her nose, her face was covered by a silky white cloth. Her dress was the same color, down to her ankles, and dripping in gold jewelry that decorated her waist and collar. You caught sight of a gold choker around her neck, which seemed more polished and well-cared for than the rest of her jewelry.

She reached into her robe and pulled out what looked like a locator card, before she spread them out in her hand to reveal she in fact possessed three. You hummed lowly as an idea popped into your head, the invisible pressure of time still weighing on you as Isis stopped to stand in front of you, the ideal distance for a duel. 

“What a coincidence,” you said, pulling out your own little stack of locator cards from your pocket, “I’ve got three as well.” 

Isis said nothing to you, removing her deck from her person and beginning to shuffle. Technically, neither of you had issued a challenge, but it was obvious you’d be dueling. You watched her quietly as you pulled out your own deck from your bag and did the same. When she walked toward you to exchange and cut decks, you began again. 

“Care to make this duel a little more interesting?”

She eyed you as the two of you swapped decks, cut them, and returned them to one another. 

“Interesting?” She finally hummed. 

“We wager all our locator cards,” you replied, “Whoever wins goes to the finals. Whoever loses is out for good.” 

You didn’t expect her to agree to your proposition, she didn’t seem the prideful type to you, but it was worth a shot. It was a risk for sure, the possibility that you would lose your place in the finals, but if it really came to that you were not above rewinding. Morals were of no value to you when the Kaiba boys were in unknown danger, and wagering all your locator cards was the fastest way to ensure you would be there to protect them. 

Isis, meanwhile, was contemplating your proposal. She was a rational, collected woman, but she was also somewhat arrogant. If the Millenium Necklace had pointed her to you, it stood to reason that she was meant to defeat you to claim her destiny. She was meant to agree to your terms; it wasn’t really gambling if it was fate, was it? Regardless, she refused to lose a duel to a no-name duelist when her brother was on the line. 

“Fine, I accept.” Isis said calmly as she set her deck into her Disk.

Well, you were not expecting that. 

\-----

Being a Kaiba had a ton of perks; namely the immense amount of money, the huge mansion, and Seto’s ability to throw a massive dueling tournament on a whim. But what Mokuba was really chasing with the Kaiba name was respect. He didn’t want to be pushed around by anyone, looked down on by anyone, ever again. As much as he adored Seto and appreciated how his brother stood up for him, he wanted to one day be in a position where he didn’t need it anymore. Where he could stand up for himself. 

Which is why it was really annoying that he kept getting kidnapped. 

He had to give his kidnappers props at least, the whole tied up with a rope and dangling from a helicopter was new. But he was understandably upset about his current position, especially since he was being flown over the city for everyone to see. His brother knowing about his kidnapping was one thing, Yuugi and his friends knowing about it was bearable, but the entirety of Domino City? If anyone looked up and took a video of this incident, he’d never live it down. 

When the helicopter began flying over a familiar, tall figure in a flashy white coat, Mokuba instantly recognized his brother, next to Yuugi. They were standing across from two cloaked figures, dressed in deep purple, the same as his kidnappers and the asshole flying the helicopter he was dangling from. Mokuba wanted desperately to call out to his brother, to tell him he was alright and that he could take care of himself. But he was also scared and upset, and the helicopter was moving so fast that the only thing he could manage to shout before he was too far out of earshot was his brother’s name. 

He felt so uncool. From Battle City Commissioner to a lowly kidnapping victim, used as a bargaining chip just to get at his big brother. Again. This had to quit happening, how was he supposed to gain any respect at this rate? He was almost thirteen, by the time Seto was this age he knew two different forms of self-defense. Mokuba sighed into the dry air racing past his cheeks, ruffling his mess of hair. 

“Maybe I should take Karate lessons or something.”

\-----

The duel was going well, not as well as you had hoped, but well enough that you had a decent shot at wrapping up soon and heading straight to wherever the blimp was located. Isis was down to her last twelve-hundred lifepoints, while you sat at thirty-five hundred. You watched Isis make her move, activating Swords of Revealing Light to buy herself three turn of free play. You hated that card, it seemed like just about everyone had it in their deck, and it only served to make the duels go by even slower. You were on a time constraint here, you needed as much time to prepare for the unknown as possible. 

You had figured out some of Isis’ strategy, for the first few turns she had been allowing you to easily send her monsters to the graveyard while she discarded cards due to her own spell and monster effects. Though you weren’t sure what purpose that served, for now you were cautiously guessing she had some sort of graveyard deck. You might have been thinking more clearly had your phone not been buzzing incessantly in your back pocket for the last two minutes.

Isis summoned an Agido and used it to destroy your Bio-Mage, though you took no damage thanks to it being in defense-mode. You looked through your hand calmly, thinking over how you could stall over the next few turns, or better yet how to get rid of her annoying Swords altogether. Your De-Spell had already been sent to the grave, so you wouldn’t be able to draw it again. You chose to set your Spirit of the Harp and a Call of the Haunted, just in case. 

Isis summoned a second monster to her field, a Kelbek, and attacked your face-down monster. Thankfully, its defensive points were might higher, and she took damage instead. She furrowed her brows from beneath her hood and set her own face-down card, before ending her turn. 

Your phone buzzed again in your pocket as you drew your next card, and you huffed to yourself. Blade had left the rooftop of the building over you as soon as your duel with Isis began, but he still must have known you were in the middle of it. It hadn’t been that long. Just what was so damn important that he needed to interrupt your concentration?

You shook your head and pushed the thought aside, looking over the card you had drawn, your ritual spell to bring out your Ruin. Said Queen was already in your hand, alongside a Black Pendant, Solemn Judgement, and Magical Mallet. If you drew another monster next turn, and your Lady of the Harp stayed on the field, you could summon her with ease. You decided to set your Black Pendant on the field, just so you didn’t have to pass your turn, and handed the duel back to your opponent. 

Again, your phone began to vibrate. God, you were going to kill Blade once this duel ended; you’d probably want to kill Doll too if you didn’t adore her so much from your days in the Lab. You turned your focus back to the duel as Isis summoned forth a Mudora, who gained four-hundred attack points thanks to the fairies in her graveyard. She then equipped him with a Cestus of Dagla, a card you knew well as it also sat in your Fairy deck. With more than enough points to take out your defense monster, your field was quickly cleared, and you were wide-open for an attack. She sent her Kelbek at your lifepoints, and you took fifteen-hundred points of damage as a result. An attack from her Agido came next, bringing you down to a mere five-hundred points as she ended her turn. 

“Shit,” you muttered, glancing down at the trap on your field; you didn’t have a monster strong enough in your graveyard to take down her Mudora, you would have to bank on drawing one of your level eight monsters in order to summon your Ruin if you had any hope of taking him out. You breathed heavily and drew your card, and for once you might have believed in luck. You activated your ritual card, End of the World, and sent the Tri-Horned Dragon you’d just drawn to the grave as fodder for your Ruin. You wasted no time equipping her with the Black Pendant you had set on the field, and ended your turn. The Swords of Revealing Light that had littered the field around you disappeared with a shimmer of light, and you would be free to attack next turn. 

Isis drew her card, before revealing the trap she had laid on her field, one you hadn’t seen before. You cocked your head and watched her intently as she spoke, a sudden confidence in her voice. 

“I pay one-thousand of my lifepoints to activate Exchange of Spirit,” she announced, “We must both swap our decks with our graveyards, then we shuffle our decks.”

You stared at her, bewildered, before slowly doing as the card ordered. She had a total of eighteen cards in her graveyard, some of which you weren’t aware of because she had used a few card effects to discard some of her cards. You, on the other hand, only had a grand total of six cards in your grave: your ritual card, Tri-Horned Dragon, Lady of the Harp, Bio-Mage, De-Spell, and one of your two Senju. Which meant you had to win this duel in five turns, or you would deck out. 

When the two of you finished shuffling and swapping your decks and graves, you watched as Mudora’s attack points soared from twenty-four hundred all the way to thirty-two hundred thanks to four additional fairies in Isis' graveyard, now high enough to take out your Ruin with ease. You thought through all of the cards that were now in your grave, your mind racing to think up how to win. 

And then it hit you, and all the worry left your body as Isis ordered her Mudora to destroy your Queen of Oblivion. She gained enough life points to almost negate Black Pendant’s life draining effect, leaving both you and her tied at a mere one-hundred lifepoints. Isis’ confidence in winning must have blinded her from your field, which still held a trap card, and as she ordered her Kelbek to attack you directly, you nearly broke a grin. 

“I activate Call of the Haunted,” you announced, and you searched through your new graveyard to bring out the one card who had stood by your side since childhood, by far your favorite card. You summoned your Wingweaver to the field, and Isis’ eyes widened. You could see her desire to call off her attack, but it was too late for her. Her Kelbek reached out its claws to slice into your life points, only to be stopped dead in its tracks by a set of giant, feathered wings. 

“Thank you, Mokuba,” you muttered beneath your breath as your Wingweaver counterattacked, wiping out the remainder of your opponent’s lifepoints and securing your spot in the finals. Isis stood shocked for a long while, even after the field had cleared of all the holograms and you had walked toward her to claim your locator cards. Her eyes were wide, filled with what you recognized as fear and regret, and you weren’t quite sure what to say or do other than hold out your hand expectantly. You wanted to get to that blimp as quickly as possible.

“This is impossible,” Isis finally muttered, eyes flickering to your hand as she slowly made to reach for her locator cards, “My necklace pointed me to you, it was my destiny to defeat you.”

“Destiny?” You scoffed, the last time you’d heard anyone speak of destiny was when Gozaburo used it to keep you in line at the Lab. You hated that word.

“I can see you are not a believer,” Isis replied, crestfallen, though she didn’t press the issue any further. She handed you her locator cards with shaky hands, and you took them without hesitation, putting them with the other three and reaching into your back pocket for your phone as it began to vibrate again. 

“Destiny is something people in power use to keep the rest of us in line,” you said sourly, “If you want to get anywhere in life you have to make your own destiny.”

Isis stared at you, brow slowly furrowing as if she was considering your words while she watched you bring your phone to your ear. Instantly there was a flurry of voices from the three-way call, all talking over one another so quickly that it almost caused you an immediate headache. But in the cacophony, you managed to make out one line that nearly sent you into a blind rage, and you couldn’t keep yourself from shouting.

“What the hell do you mean _kidnapped_?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're kickin' Isis outta Battle City my dudes! Who needs cannon when you can just make up your own story amirite? I've decided to use the name Isis in this fic simply because I've seen it used more often in the Japanese version, but it's interchangeable with Ishizu. I personally prefer Isis, so hopefully that doesn't cause any confusion for you guys!
> 
> Writing from so many perspectives is really new for me, I'm trying to give them all a slightly different style and way of thinking but I'm not sure if that's coming through? You should totally let me know what you think, because I really need feedback on this little baby, it's like the only thing that motivates me to keep writing haha. 
> 
> Anywhoooooo sorry again for such a long delay in the update, I feel terrible that I've put off this chapter for so long D:


	6. Doll

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly background about the Reader, with little mention of either of the Kaibas. I know it's taking a bit to get to any real romance in this fic, but I'm trying to build this world and the characters enough that it feels justified. Next chapter will be back in present day and I promise Battle City Kaiba will finally make an appearance!

_The sound of heavy footfalls coming toward you was unnerving, and every step made you feel increasingly more hopeless of your situation. You couldn’t stop thinking that you absolutely did not deserve to be in this situation, thrown into a laboratory swarming with guards and scientists. All you had wanted to do was make friends, what was so wrong with that?_

_An emotionless voice cut through the air and you paused your crying for a moment to listen, but you couldn’t understand what was being said. It sounded like a completely different language, one that you’d heard somewhere before, you were sure of it. German, maybe? A lot of the Kaiba Corporation executives spoke German, so it sounded somewhat familiar. You’d never learned it, though._

_“Who are you?”_

_This time the voice was in clear English, which you actually spoke thanks to the studies you’d had with Noah and Seto in the Kaiba mansion. You picked your head up off your knees and blinked up through the tears in your eyes to see the figure of a tall, lanky girl. She towered over you, bright green eyes completely void of pity as she searching your wet face for an answer, her red hair long and stringy as it fell around her face and over her shoulders. She had on the same white cotton scrubs you had been given when you arrived, wrinkled and dirtied with various color stains, one of which you were almost positive was blood._

_The door to your newfound surroundings closed behind the girl and locked with a nauseating click. Once the sound of heavy leather soles disappeared down the unseen hallway, you were left staring up at the girl with only a dull hum resonating from the dim yellow light above your heads. You barely managed to mumble out your name before another wave of tiny, hopeless sobs wracked your body and you returned your forehead to your knees._

_“You need to put on your uniform before the guards come back,” the young girl muttered over your heavy breaths. You felt the bed, which your back was pushed against, squeak loudly as she climbed the rickety ladder to the top bunk. The white uniform she spoke of was behind you on the lower bunk, folded exactly the way it had been given to you when you were brought in. You had been told to put it on as soon as you got into your cell, but you couldn’t will yourself to do any more than sit on the concrete floor and cry as you resigned yourself to your fate._

_“Hey, seriously put your uniform on, if the guards come by for your tests and you’re not in it, it’s not going to be pretty.”_

_“What tests?” You asked worriedly between hiccups for air._

_“It’s your first day, so probably just bloodwork and a physical evaluation,” she said flatly._

_When you made no indication to move from your spot, despite the hard floor pushing into your tailbone so hard it was painful, you heard the bed creak again. You felt a finger poking at the top of your head, the young girl had turned to prod you as you began to exhaust yourself from crying._

_“Hey, put on your uniform. Do you want to get beat on your first day too?”_

_“Why do I need a uniform for a physical?”_

_“Look, I don’t make the rules. I just don’t feel like watching the guards make a mess out of you, so put on the scrubs and quit acting like a baby.”_

_You whimpered in reply and tried to even your breathing, collecting yourself until you were steady enough to stand up and change clothes. The girl was watching you intently, even while you stripped yourself and put on the scrubs, which was really unnerving. No one but your parents had ever seen you naked before, and that was when you were really young, but you were too tired and scared of the guards coming back to wait until she had turned away._

_“Uh,” you managed after clearing your raspy throat, “So what’s your name?”_

_The ginger-haired girl tilted her head at your question, but her face still stayed void of any real emotion. You really hoped she didn’t always act like this, or that at least the other people in this place were had more feeling, because as it stood she seemed kind of… inhuman._

_“Call me Doll.”_

_Two weeks after you’d first arrived at the Lab, you’d started realizing why Doll and most of the other subjects were so devoid of emotion. The environment was oppressive and tiresome, you could barely keep up the energy to feel anything other than exhaustion, terror, and pain. And really, why would you want to feel scared and hurt all the time? It was so much better to completely ignore those feelings, push them to the deepest recesses of your mind, and instead feel nothing._

_The only time you felt even a lick of happiness was when all the day’s tests and lessons were over. When you didn’t have to sit on a cold metal table and get foreign liquids injected into your body, when you didn’t have to absorb information about how to shoot a gun or how to wield a sword or how to sneak up on someone without being heard. You could curl up in a ball in the corner of your bed, long after Doll had gone to sleep despite the dim light on the ceiling being always on. In your tiny hands you held the only treasure you had from your former life, which you had snuck into the Lab. You hadn’t really meant to sneak it in, considering you hadn’t even known you were going to be trapped here until you already were, you had just had it in your pocket when Gozaburo’s men took you here and they hadn’t felt it when they searched you._

_By all rights it was contraband, if any of the guards saw you with it they would take it away, probably tear it up in front of your eyes. So you kept it a secret from absolutely everyone so there was no chance it would be found. It was that night, though, that things didn’t go exactly as planned, because you heard a tired voice from the bunk above you cut through your thoughts._

_“What’s that?”_

_You held a gasp in your throat and darted your head to look up at Doll, mild curiosity painted on her features. She was leaning over the railing of her bed to peer over at you, her orange-red hair spilling down like a waterfall from her upside-down head. You wondered if she was going to tell the guard about it, you knew that prisoners who gave information on each other got special treatment. You’d only known the girl for two weeks, so you didn’t trust her enough to rule it out._

_“Are you gonna rat me out?”_

_“Huh?” Doll huffed and hopped down from her bunk, crossing her arms over her chest and regarding you with a scowl._

_“Are you going to tell them?” You repeated anxiously, shoving the little item against your chest to conceal it from her._

_“No, of course I’m not. Why would I ever help them?”_

_You eyed her suspiciously and didn’t move from your spot. Eventually she freed her arms and reached up to her bunk with a long, irritated sigh and a muttered curse. You’d learned very quickly that Doll swore quite a lot, which was something you weren’t used to. You were taught growing up that swearing wasn’t lady-like, and it would be an embarrassment to your father if anyone heard you. Almost everyone you knew your age were taught the same, you’d never heard Seto or Noah curse even once, and Mokuba was much too young._

_“I know we just met but I’m pretty insulted you think I’d snitch on you. I’m not a bitch.”_

_This was the most emotion you’d seen the girl show in two weeks, and it was because you’d insulted her. You had seen her after coming back from tests that must have left her in excruciating pain, you had seen her shoved and smacked by guards on more than one occasion, but she never showed more than a small wince. Yet now looking at her with her nose scrunched and lips pursed, you were reminded that she was just as human as you were. That before she came to the lab, she had a family, another life, another name._

_She pulled her arm from her bed and produced a small black notebook with a lock on it, the key already inside. It looked like a cheap diary that could be bought for a little girl in any toy store, but upon closer inspection you could see little specks and lines of pink peeking through the black, as if she had painted over it._

_“Now you know I’m hiding something too,” Doll said, “So if I snitch on you, you can snitch on me back.”_

_She took the liberty of sitting next to you on your bed and peered over your knees to try and see what you were hiding, and after thinking it over, you decided it was safe enough. Honestly, you were surprised she would go so far to get you to trust her. You pulled your hands away from your chest and laid the card you’d been hiding out in your palms so it was visible._

_“It’s a Duel Monsters card,” you said sadly, “My friend gave it to me as a birthday present a few months ago.”_

_“What’s it called?” She asked, squinting to look over the Japanese text on the card that she couldn’t decipher. You had learned very quickly that Doll only knew a few Japanese phrases that she’d picked up from some of the others at the Lab, but she couldn’t read any._

_“Wingweaver,” you translated, “She’s a fairy.”_

_“Pretty,” she mumbled in a clear lie. “So it’s from a game?”_

_“Yeah, a card came. Mokuba and Seto played it.”_

_“Seto? Wait… you don’t mean Seto Kaiba do you? The kid the guards talk about sometimes?”_

_You nodded._

_“You knew the Kaiba family?”_

_“Why do you think I’m here?” You bemoaned._

_“Holy shit, you pissed off the Kaiba family?”_

_“Just Gozaburo. At least I think… I mean I hope Seto doesn’t hate me.”_

_“What did you do?”_

_You frowned and cast your gaze downward, biting at your bottom lip to steady it from quivering. You hadn’t thought about the incident that brought you here in a while, out of pure necessity. Every time you did you nearly started crying from regret. Doll hummed in confusion from behind you, but after you made no moves to turn around or speak again, she must have gotten bored. Or, at the very least, gotten the idea that you didn’t want to speak. You felt her weight shift off your bed, and the metal frame creaked as she climbed back up to her bunk._

_Someday, maybe, you’d tell her how terribly you’d screwed up._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I'm super slow with updates on this fic and the background chapters are a lot shorter than what some of you probably expect if you're coming from Insufferable, I really apologize! This is really more of a side story for me between weekly Beg to Differ updates and general personal life stuff. But for those of you who continue to read I very much appreciate it! I hope you'll keep reading, and as always critiques/comments/typo notices are always welcome.


	7. Remorse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HOLY GUACAMOLE IT'S AN UPDATE  
> IS MERCURY IN RETROGRADE?

“How exactly did you manage to let him get kidnapped?” You snapped into your phone. You ignored the way Isis was watching you, confusion glinting in her eyes. 

“When I was trying to send Doll information on your opponent--”

“I didn’t ask when,” you interrupted Blade on the other end of the line, “I asked how. Your only jobs for the day were to collect information and keep an eye on the Kaiba brothers.”

Isis furrowed her brow and you bit down on your tongue. In your rage, you had completely forgotten to keep anything about Seto and Mokuba on the down-low. You hoped you could find an easy way to keep the woman quiet, you’d need all your energy to go rescue Mokuba from certain doom and rewinding wasn’t an option. 

“Send me his location in five minutes or I’m not going to be happy,” you said quickly, “I’ll take care of it.” 

You hung up and shoved your phone into your pocket before turning your attention to Isis. She looked quite worried, which you supposed was normal considering you had just mentioned a child kidnapping. 

“What’s happened?” She asked. 

“It’s not your concern. What do I need to do to make you forget what you just heard?” 

“I don’t think that’s possible,” she said carefully, “I have sort of a… vested interest in the Kaiba brothers. The elder, at the very least.” 

“What kind of an interest?” You didn’t like the way the woman spoke, and the more you thought about it, the more suspicious she was. Dressed head to toe in white despite the heat of the summer day, the way she talked about ‘destiny’ as if she were some sort of oracle. Your gut told you something was, at the very least, off about her. 

“He owes me something, I suppose you could say.” She replied, “But on the topic of his younger brother--” 

“This is really none of your business,” you repeated defiantly, “I’ll take care of--”

“I may know who kidnapped him.”

You narrowed your eyes at her and bit lightly on the inside of your cheek. You definitely didn’t like this woman, from her haughty know-it-all attitude to the vagueness of her words, and now you were positive she had entered the Battle City tournament for reasons other than simply to test her skill. 

“Why would you have that information?” 

She gave you a hard stare, as if she had no intention of responding. It made you increasingly more weary of her as you felt your phone buzz in your pocket. You pulled it out, glancing between the screen and her face as you debated what exactly to do with her. 

_He’s being held in a warehouse on the Domino Pier. The Ghouls have him._

The Domino Pier was on the opposite end of town, and you were so not in the mood to book it there on foot. As for Isis, you were running out of options for keeping her quiet about the whole situation, especially if she was insisting upon sticking her nose into it. 

“Did you discover his location?”

“I did.”

“Allow me to take you there,” she insisted, “Most of the roads in the city are blocked off but I have special permissions to get around.” 

“Why exactly do you have special permission?”

She made the face again that implied she wasn’t going to answer you. 

“I’m not going anywhere with you until you tell me who you are and what your ‘interest’ in the Kaiba brother is.” 

She frowned-- or you assumed it was a frown considering you couldn’t see her mouth-- at your words as she pulled out her own phone. She typed a short message onto the keypad though you couldn’t see what was said, before directing her attention back to you. 

“My limousine will be arriving here shortly. I’ll take you wherever you need to go, and on the way I will explain what’s going on. On one condition.” 

You crossed your arms over your chest. On the one hand if you did allow Isis to take you to the pier you could get there somewhat quickly, and you’d be able to keep her in your sights to make sure she kept quiet about the situation. Additionally, she might have some information about who was planning to attack the Kaiba brothers during the tournament. 

On the other hand, if she was indeed one of the people involved in the plot, she could be leading you directly into a trap. In that case, it was probably better to stick close to her if you needed to get rid of her. 

“What’s the condition?” 

“Allow me to accompany you to the semifinals.” 

You hummed, briefly wondering if she knew the semifinals were going to be held on a blimp thousands of feet off the ground. You also wondered if she was aware that the finalists weren’t supposed to be accompanied by any of their friends-- she must have been aware, it was clearly written in the rules. 

“I’ll decide whether or not you can accompany me after I hear your explanation.” You replied decisively. 

She took a moment to reach up to her neck, placing gentle fingertips on the golden necklace she wore. You eyed her quizzically as she closed her eyes and sighed at something, before she just as quickly flickered them back open. A brief flash of frustration graced her features, as if something unknown to you had happened. But as quickly as you saw the emotion it was gone, and in an instant she had resumed her passive stare.

“I suppose I don’t have much of a choice.”

\-----

A duel with two third-rate Ghouls was not what Seto Kaiba had been looking forward to today, especially considering Mokuba was in unknown danger. On top of it all, Yugi wouldn’t cease with the obnoxious teamwork speech, something Seto was absolutely not in the mood to hear. Anger was boiling in his veins at the thought of anything happening to his brother, an anger that threatened to send him into a frenzied rage when any of the three other men in present company so much as uttered a word to suggest he was incapable of winning this ridiculous charade of a duel by himself.

Seto wanted to murder everyone on the field, perhaps most of all his so-called ‘partner’, who was the biggest source of his current acrimony. If he hadn’t hosted this tournament mainly to duel him and reclaim the title of the world’s number-one duelist, perhaps he would have seriously considered it. 

“The combination of those two Ghouls is perfect,” the ear-grating voice of one Mutou Yugi rang, in a tone that sounded as if he was scolding a stubborn child. “We can’t defeat them unless we work together!”

On second thought, perhaps he would leave Yugi on Alcatraz once he’d ripped the title from him.

\-----

The second the two of you were in the limousine, Isis had removed her face mask and hood, and had taken to staring at you intently with her wide blue eyes. Had you not already seen her moving around like a normal human being, you might have mistaken her for a China doll with the emotionless expression and almost hollow look to her.

You really did not like this woman, or rather, you didn’t like the way she carried herself. The whole ‘all-knowing oracle’ vibe was much less now that she’s removed her facial coverings, but it was like she was trying her hardest to seem mysterious, and it was getting on your nerves. You stared back at her as a sort of way to stand your ground. Now that you looked at her a little more, you felt like you’d seen her face somewhere. 

She reached into a little pocket hidden inside of the ruffles of her dress and produced a tiny metal tin for business cards, pulling one out for you and handing it over with a sort of half-bow. You took the card, an ivory that matched her dress with small, neat black lettering typed onto it.

  
Isis Ishtar  
Secretary General  
Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities  


Searching your memory, you were almost positive you’d seen her sun-kissed caramel skin and straight black hair on television. When you read over the ‘Council of Antiquities’ words again, a little lightbulb went off in your brain. You’d seen the public broadcast of the young woman discussing an Egyptian exhibit at the Domino Museum a few weeks back. The only reason Doll had shown it to you was because she ‘personally invited’ Seto Kaiba to the grand opening.

So, Isis had had a so-called “vested interest” in Seto for quite a while now, it seemed. You flipped the card back and forth between your fingers absently for a moment, watching her smooth the wrinkles in her dress and waiting for her to give you the explanation you were promised. She had less than five minutes, about the length of the limousine ride to the Domino Pier, and impatience was beginning to get the better of you. 

“Let’s cut to the chase. Why did you enter this tournament?”

She didn’t say anything, so you narrowed your eyebrow in her direction and continued.

“You personally invited Seto Kaiba to an Egyptian exhibit and weeks later he announces a city-wide tournament which you show up to and claim he ‘owes you something’,” you said coolly, “I’m not daft Miss Ishtar, I can put two and two together.” 

She furrowed her brow at you but kept her lips tightly pursed together.

“What does Seto Kaiba owe you?”

She made no indication that she would answer you.

“Miss Ishtar I am not a patient woman, I’m getting tired of the silent treatment. It’s in your best interest to answer me,” you reminded her.

She opened her mouth in protest before just as quickly snapping it shut, drawing in a long, deep breath to compose herself. She nodded slowly, her face twisting into a resigned glare as she folded her hands together on her lap. 

“I suppose you’re correct,” she struggled to say, “Fine. I lent Obelisk the Tormentor to Kaiba in exchange for starting the Battle City Tournament.”

The name Obelisk was one you’d heard before. You knew of the existence of the God cards, there had been rumors floating around that the beasts would surface during the Battle City tournament. However, the fact that Seto was already in possession of one was news to you. 

“You ‘lent’ him a God card?” 

“That’s correct.”

“You honestly think he’ll give it back to you? Have you met the man?” 

“Yes,” she replied, eyebrow raised slightly at the way you framed your question though she didn’t comment on it, “I foresaw Obelisk returning to me during the semifinals.” 

“Foresaw? Like with your…” you gestured to the choker around her neck, “What did you call it?”

“The Millennium Necklace, yes.”

“Uh-huh. Didn’t that thing also predict you winning a duel against me?” 

Isis frowned dejectedly but didn’t respond. 

“Right, good to know your omniscient future powers aren’t at all reliable.” 

Isis opened her mouth to retaliate but you cut her off before you had to hear any sort of lecture about destiny or some other nonsense. 

“Moving on,” you began sternly, “You mean to say starting the Battle City Tournament was your idea?”

She nodded. 

“Why?”

She let in a deep breath before speaking, her voice flat with resentment, presumably aimed at you for forcing her to answer your questions. “I wanted the tournament to be held in order to draw out my brother.”

“Why would a Duel Monsters tournament draw out your brother?” 

“There are… a couple reasons,” she replied vaguely. When you narrowed your eyes at her, she huffed angrily and resigned herself once again to her fate, “My brother is the leader of a crime group known as the Ghouls.”

“The ones who go around collecting rare trading cards right?”

“Correct.” 

The Ghouls. Those were the slimeballs currently holding Mokuba hostage, according to Blade. Isis’ words were the final piece of the puzzle.

“When you said you might know who kidnapped Mokuba, it’s because you believe it’s your brother, isn’t that right?”

Isis looked a little surprised at your accusation, but the emotion quickly flickered from her eyes and she nodded. 

“Does Marik have some sort of grudge against the Kaiba brothers?”

Isis shook her head, “No. I believe he’s just using Mokuba to force Kaiba into a duel. I doubt he truly has any ill will against either of them.”

“Just for a duel?” You hummed.

“Yes, to get his hands on Obelisk the Tormentor. My brother wishes to own all three of the Egyptian God Cards.”

You nodded, “And the other reason your brother is here?”

“That one is a bit more complicated to explain.” 

“Give me the footnotes version, we’re almost to the Domino Pier.” 

Isis squeezed her hands together a little more as she swallowed loudly, discomfort clear on her features. At this point, you couldn’t care less how uncomfortable the woman in front of you was feeling, you needed all the information you could get. 

After a tense moment Isis gave a long sigh, before leaping into a long-winded tale of Egyptian tomb-keepers and an ancient pharaoh residing the body of the current King of Games, Mutou Yugi. You instantly regretted asking the question, the whole story was convoluted and, frankly, unbelievable. The only worthwhile information you’d gotten out of it was that this Marik character seemed to only hold a grudge against Yugi. He was still on your list of suspects, but you doubted he was the one behind the plot to kill Seto and Mokuba during the finals. 

Once her story was finished you had a pretty good idea of who she was, you decided she didn’t pose much of a threat to either of the Kaiba brothers so long as you kept her in your sight. The easiest way to do that was to allow her to tag along with you to the semifinals, though you thought it in your best interest to keep that a secret for now. 

“And why did you enter the tournament?” Isis asked suddenly, pulling you from your thoughts, “It sounds like you’re playing for more than the title as well.”

“I’m not obligated to answer your questions Miss Ishtar,” you snapped, “I’ve already secured my spot in the finals.”

Isis pursed her lips and furrowed her brow in frustration, you imagined the woman wasn’t used to being told what to do. She struck you as the kind of person who enjoyed being in charge, enjoyed being always right. You were having a little more fun than you should have been pushing her buttons. 

She spent the rest of the ride staring at you in uncomfortable silence, fiddling with the dull gold jewelry on her arms and wrists. You had since leaned back comfortably in your seat, arms crossed triumphantly over your chest though you kept your face as passive as humanly possible. After another moment or two, the limousine rolled to a halt at the edge of the harbor, rows of buildings laid out neatly in front of the passenger side window. You undid your seatbelt and slid across the leather seats of the limo, opening the door for yourself and stepping out onto the asphalt, the salty, fishy air immediately filling your nostrils. 

“Wait here,” you said curtly to the woman in the back of the limousine, who frowned as if she was about to say something but ultimately kept her mouth clamped shut. You knew she wouldn’t leave the Pier anyway, she needed you to get to the semifinals. You shut the car door behind you and pulled out your phone, glancing over the text you’d received from Blade during your chat with Isis. 

Warehouse 32.

You scanned the numbers painted on the large garage doors in the front of each of the long buildings, before spotting the number, 30 with 31 behind it. You set your phone to silent and began walking briskly to through the buildings, darting your eyes through each alleyway in search of either Mokuba or his potential captors. 

The pier was eerily quiet, other than the sounds of the harbor and the gulls overhead. Perhaps it was simply because much of the city had been shut down for the tournament, but you had expected there to be more people working in the area. You didn’t see any real signs of life anywhere near any of the long buildings, none of the doors were open and there were no vehicles in the area other than the limousine you’d left behind. 

If this Marik character was using the pier as his base in Domino for the Ghouls, he had a lot more power than you initially thought. Isis had said she had no reason to believe he had any intention to kill either of the Kaiba brothers, but at the very least, he was a big threat right now, and you would revel in torturing him if anything at all happened to Seto or Mokuba.

The sound of a loud metal pang echoed around you, maybe two buildings down from where you were. You darted your head toward the sound and quickened your pace as you made your way towards it. After a brief moment, the clamor of two men shouting filled the air. 

“Hey kid, stop right there!” 

“Don’t make us hurt you you little brat!”

That didn’t sound good at all. A lump caught in your throat as you broke out into a run, getting closer and closer to the sound of shouting. As you neared the alleyway that seemed to be the source of the commotion, you spied a tin trash can knocked onto its side, a foul odor wafting from the contents that had spilled out all over the asphalt. 

“I’ll shoot you if you don’t stop running, punk!” 

The second you heard those words you rounded the corner, the sight of two dark figures a good ways down the alley filled your vision before you squeezed your eyes shut. You had to protect Mokuba, no matter the cost. You wouldn’t let anyone hurt him.

_Stop._

_As you slowly opened your eyelids, your surroundings had completely frozen in place, just as they always did when you commanded the world around you to cease moving. There was no sound to be heard, no shouting, no gulls, no boats in the harbor water a few hundred meters away. Everyone and everything was completely, deathly still. You let out a long breath and took a few steps into the long alleyway, inching closer to the figures before you._

_Two men in dark purple cloaks stood frozen in place, as if they were merely decorations in the lifeless world you were occupying. One man was preparing to chase after Mokuba while the other pointed a gun straight ahead. His finger was already applying pressure onto the trigger, enough so that when time began as normal again, he would surely fire. You stepped behind the man with the gun and peered over his shoulder, squeezing one eye shut so you could gaze through the gun’s sight. Left alone, the bullet was either going to miss Mokuba entirely, or hit him in the shoulder._

_You had a few options in this situation, one of which involved simply taking the gun from the taller cloaked man, which would avoid any casualties. You prefered not leaving any trace that you had been at the scene, and a disappearing gun would cause more questions than you wanted anyone asking. Plus, you didn’t care much for either of these men considering they were trying to kill little Mokuba. You told yourself that that meant there was no reason to feel remorse._

_You grabbed the man’s arm and rotated it to his left, the act as easy as if you were posing a mannequin, so the barrel of the gun pointed instead to the back of his partner in crime’s head. It would cause enough chaos that Mokuba could escape safely, and no one would know you had been at the scene. Even if the man tried to figure out how his arm had ended up so quickly twisted, he would most likely blame himself for the death of his partner._

_You took in a long breath, lungs filling with the stale air of an empty world, a sensation you had grown used to after all these years. As a girl you had wondered if the air felt different for some actual, physical reason, or if it was merely a psychological side-effect of being the only living soul occupying a silent space. After a while though, you’d stopped asking yourself such pointless questions and just allowed them to occupy a tiny spot in the back of your brain._

_You stepped away from the two men and ducked behind the corner of the closest building, close enough that you would be able to react if anything else happened to endanger the younger Kaiba. A pit in your stomach formed as you stared at the scene you had painted, one that would in mere moments be bathed in bloodshed. You didn’t want the scene to play out. You didn’t want any more blood on your hands._

_But you would do anything to save Mokuba. Anything. There was no reason to feel remorse, no one would miss a couple of child kidnappers. The world was better off without them. You repeated those words to yourself over and over and over again as you squeezed your eyes shut, forcing yourself to look away._

_Go._

\-----

A gunshot resounded throughout the warehouses, sound ricocheting between the long, empty walls of the buildings and big garage doors. Mokuba heard a loud, pained yelp from a man behind him, quickly followed by a second voice shouting a jumble of almost incoherent words. He wanted desperately to turn around and see what happened, but with the adrenalin pumping through him his legs just kept running, entirely too terrified to stop their movements. He continued sprinting straight ahead, feeling cold sweat cover his forehead.

“But I wasn’t even pointing to-- how did he-- how did I--”

Mokuba continued faster than he had been before, if that was even possible, and although his brain had an idea of what had happened, his thoughts were racing so quickly that there wasn’t any time to really process it all. He could hardly hear himself think over the pounding of his heart and the labored breaths struggling to exit his throat; all he knew was that he was uninjured and he needed to get to Seto as fast as possible. 

“Master please! I don’t know how I-- I’m so sorry!”

A second scream echoed through the alley as Mokuba bolted around a corner heading toward the Pier’s exit. Tears stung at his eyes, threatening to spill over, blurring his vision so it was hard to see where he was going. But he was stronger than his fear, he had gotten out of scarier situations before, and he needed to bring back help to get Anzu out of the warehouse. He pushed away his terror, his confusion, his sadness, and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt. He could see the edge of the Pier, and once he reached the city he would be safe. 

He had time to feel remorse later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey look reader-chan has timey-wimey space powers isn't that neat-o?
> 
> I don't know what I'm doing with this fic. I don't know if I like this fic. I don't know if this fic is good. Please christ someone gimme some feedback/comments and tell me if this is even worth anything @-@


	8. Dracula

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> May as well update this too while I'm at it @-@

_“What are you wearing?” Seto asked, one eyebrow raised and arms crossed over his chest as he looked your costume up and down._

_“I’m a vampire!” You replied excitedly, before holding a finger up to him for dramatic pause. You clutched your shiny black cape in one hand and brought it up over your face, trying desperately not to laugh at yourself. “I vant to suck your blooood!”_

_Seto didn’t find your impression at all amusing, but Mokuba let out a fit of giggles._

_“Are you guys coming to the Halloween party tonight?” You asked._

_Seto and Mokuba looked between each other, confused._

_“You know… the company party? Soichiro is hosting it this year. He always hires the same catering company and the food is all Halloween themed and….”_

_The two boys didn’t say anything, Mokuba looking down at the floor with a frown._

_“Don’t tell me no one invited you to the Halloween party. That’s crap!”_

_“What does that mean?” Mokuba asked._

_“Oops,” you covered your mouth with your hand and bowed a little in apology when Seto shot you a glare._

_After a tense moment, you huffed and grabbed both Seto and Mokuba’s hands so they were on either side of you, and began dragging them along down the first floor hallway toward Gozaburo’s home office. Mokuba followed you along obediently, though Seto spent the walk trying to squirm his hand out of your grip and slow you down. Kogoro Daimon was about to enter the office when he spied you stomping down the hallway with the two boys in tow, and he eyed you curiously._

_“Good morning Miss,” Daimon addressed you formally, bowing slightly as you stopped in front of him, “Lovely costume.”_

_“Thanks!” You exclaimed delightedly, letting go of the Kaiba boys to clap your hands together, “I’m a vampire!”_

_“I can see that,” Daimon nodded down at you, “Do you have business with Mister Kaiba?”_

_“Actually yes,” you nodded decisively._

_“You know my dear, Mister Kaiba is a very busy man. I’m not sure if he has time to--”_

_“It’s very important.”_

_Seto leaned forward to hiss your name into your ear as a warning, as if to say you were playing with fire. But as a spirited thirteen-year-old with no concept of consequences, you brushed him off with a wave of your hand._

_Daimon pursed his lips together in thought for a moment, before nodding and opening one of the large double doors to allow you inside. You thanked him and bounded inside, with Seto and Mokuba following you timidly. You placed your hands behind your back politely and stared up at one Gozaburo Kaiba, sitting at his massive wooden desk and scouring over a stack of papers for work. He didn't even look up at you as he continued working, barely acknowledging you with a sigh._

_“I'm busy kid, what is it?”_

_“You’re attending tonight’s Halloween party aren’t you Mister Kaiba Sir?”_

_“Of course I am, it’s my company’s party.” Gozaburo replied dismissively, still not looking up from his stack of papers._

_“Are Seto and Mokuba attending?”_

_“You're wasting my time with this drivel?”_

_You frowned up at the large man, as Daimon came to your side quickly and placed a large hand on your shoulder. He shot you a confused frown._

_“Miss I thought you said this was an important matter?”_

_“Oh, it is. Very important. It is imperative they attend tonight's party, I would be so disappointed to not see them there!”_

_Gozaburo set his pen down and snapped his gaze to meet yours, the look he gave you almost enough to make you collapse._

_“Miss,” Daimon said carefully, “The children don't even have costumes to wear--"_

_“Oh I have plenty of costumes!” You said quickly, “Seto is smaller than me anyway so I'm sure I have something that will fit. And I have all my costumes from when I was small so Mokuba can--”_

_“Seto won't have time to attend,” Gozaburo said quickly, “He has his lessons tonight.”_

_“Oh… but it's Halloween!”_

_Gozaburo clenched his jaw, “The business world doesn't stop for Halloween, kid.”_

_“But sir! Our youth is fleeting!” You asserted, lifting one of your hands in the air as if you were reciting lines from a play, “We have to seize it while we can and make the most of it!”_

_Gozaburo stared at you as if he couldn’t believe you were wasting his time with your nonsensical speeches, before folding his hands on his desk and groaning. “You’ve been reading Dickens again, haven’t you?”_

_“Sterne, actually.”_

_He shot you a glare as if the question had been rhetorical._

_Seto tugged on your sleeve and again whispered your name into your ear, “This is a waste of time, let's just go.”_

_“But--"_

_“I don't want to go to a stupid party anyway. Come on.”_

_You turned back to look at Seto, a frown painted on his face. Next to him, Mokuba was staring at a particularly interesting spot on the floor. You sighed dramatically before returning your attention to Gozaburo, who looked so terribly annoyed you wouldn't have been surprised if he was about to kick you out of his home._

_“Sorry for wasting your time Mister Kaiba Sir,” you muttered as politely as you could manage, before bowing to both him and Daimon._

_“See that it doesn't happen again.” Came his reply, and whether it was directed at you or Daimon you weren't positive._

_You and the Kaiba brothers exited the office in silence, Mokuba had since latched onto your arm for comfort. Seto, on the other hand, looked more annoyed than anything. As the heavy doors closed behind you, he walked in front of you and tilted his head up to glare at you._

_“What the heck are you thinking?” He demanded._

_“That I want you to go to a party, I thought that was obvious.” You rolled your eyes._

_“Why would you waste his time with that?” Seto demanded, “I could have told you he would say no.”_

_“Well you never know unless you try, right?”_

_Seto crossed his arms over his chest._

_“Besides, it's not like anything bad happened. I mean he's kinda annoyed but he'll get over it. My daddy gets annoyed at me all the time but he gets over it really fast!”_

_“Gozaburo doesn't really get over stuff fast…” Mokuba chimed in softly._

_You shrugged him off, “I'm sure it'll be fine.”_

_Seto let out a groan, “You're so obnoxious. You don't think about the consequences!”_

_“What consequences? It's not like he's gonna do anything to me.”_

_“Not to you, but probably to--" the elder Kaiba brother cut himself off quickly before averting his eyes from yours. You and Mokuba looked between each other for a moment, but before either of you could say anything he had already turned away from you._

_“Come on, we have class soon.”_

_Seto practically stormed off down the hallway, and Mokuba released your hand so you could follow him. You jogged to catch up to the brunette, spying the way his brow was knitted in annoyance._

_“Hey what were you gonna say back there?” You asked._

_“Nothing.”_

_“Seto--"_

_“I don't want to talk about it. Stop pestering me.”_

_“But--"_

_“Why are you so obnoxious?” He sighed loudly, “Just drop it.”_

_“Fine.” You pouted, “I won't make you cry on Halloween.”_

_“Cry?”_

_“Yeah you seem upset and I don't want you to cry or anything.” You waved your hand dismissively._

_“I'm not going to cry.” He insisted._

_“Uh-huh, sure sure.”_

_“I'm not!”_

_You tried to bite back a grin but couldn't manage it, and when Seto saw it it only served to make him roll his eyes in exasperation._

_“I hate you.”_

_“You can't hate me, I'm like your only friend.”_

_“I can still hate you.” He replied as the two of you made it to the library on the other side of the mansion, and took your seats at one of the long tables._

_“A-hah! So we are friends!” You declared._

_“What? I didn't--"_

_Before he could finish his protest your mathematics instructor entered the room, a permanent frown etched onto her old face, glasses perched on the very end of her nose. She looked like a librarian who had just bit into a particularly sour lemon. She was, by far, your least favorite instructor._

_As much as you tried to pay attention through a more than grueling statistics lecture, followed by a particularly dull Japanese history lecture, you couldn’t stop thinking that your little stunt in Gozaburo’s office had been a mistake. Both your instructors seemed frustrated that you weren’t completely focused on your assignments, and though Seto said nothing, he kept looking at you like he was annoyed._

_Throughout your next three lectures you slowly slipped into a worse and worse mood, and though you were able to focus more on the work in front of you it was only serving to irritate you more. By the time your classes were over for the day, you were pretty sure you were radiating frustration, because once your final instructor exited the library Seto immediately demanded your attention by slamming a physics textbook closed._

_“What’s with you?” He huffed as you packed your notebooks into your bag._

_“Nothing.”_

_“Earlier you were so obnoxiously excited and now look miserable.”_

_“It’s nothing.” You repeated with a huff._

_“Girls are so volatile,” he groaned._

_He waved you toward the glass door in the library which lead to the balcony, and you clutched your bag in your hand as you followed him outside. For a late October afternoon, it was surprisingly warm. A soft breeze rustled the branches of the maple trees overhead and created a cascade of warm fall colors, leaves blowing around you before landing gently on the balcony floor._

_“Tell me what’s wrong already.” He said sternly._

_You took a sudden interest in your shiny black shoes. Seto didn’t press the issue further, but he crossed his arms over his chest like he wasn’t going to let you leave the mansion without answering him._

_“Are you gonna get in trouble because of me?”_

_“Because of the thing in my father’s office?”_

_You nodded._

_“Most likely.”_

_You winced at his answer, maybe moreso at how confident he sounded when he gave it._

_“I should have thought about it before I did it,” you mumbled._

_“Yes, you should have.”_

_“I’m sorry….”_

_Seto sighed loudly beside you,_

_“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” He finally muttered._

_Silence fell over the two of you, each watching the leaves as they glided down from the tree branches. It wasn’t very often that the two of you had time alone together, and usually when you did it was between lectures and was spent studying. You very much enjoyed the rare moments you spent alone with him, not just because you considered the short brunette to be your best friend, but because it was the only time you ever saw him lower his guard._

_You turned your head to look at him, “Can I ask you something?”_

_“What?”_

_“You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to! I don’t want you to get mad or anything I just--”_

_“I already said what.” He huffed._

_“Um…” For a moment you looked anywhere but at his face, watching a leaf flutter to the ground before working up the courage to look back at him. “Well I… One time I saw,” you pointed to one of his wrists nervously, “Some bruises on there.”_

_He didn’t say anything._

_“And I wanted to know… well earlier when you were saying your dad wasn’t going to do anything to me but you cut yourself off… um.”_

_Compared to Seto, you were no genius. But compared to most other children your age, you liked to think yourself quite intelligent. In this case, you thought you were at least smart enough to put two and two together._

_“He’s not going to… you know… hurt you is he?”_

_Seto didn’t respond, nor did he look at you once you’d asked your question. It was the fact that he wouldn’t answer that made it obvious what was probably going to happen after the Halloween party tonight. While you were tucked away in your bed sleeping soundly, your best friend was probably going to be on the receiving end of… what exactly you weren’t quite sure, and perhaps that was the scariest thought of all._

_He didn’t ask you to leave, but it was obvious it was time for you to go home._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know I'm really bad with replying to comments because I read them at school and get all excited and then forget that I'm supposed to respond BUT IF YOU WROTE ME A COMMENT LAST CHAPTER I PROMISE I READ IT AND I REALLY REALLY APPRECIATE IT I WILL TRY TO RESPOND TO THEM MORE OFTEN!!!


	9. Acid and Venom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's 4am and I'm very tired so I may have missed some typos and mistakes and shizzz so lemme know if you find any :3

As soon as you were back in the comfort of the limousine you informed Isis that you would allow her to tag along with you to the Battle City semifinals. She let out a sigh that sounded more relieved than happy, and relayed the directions that you had given her to the driver. Afterwards, the two of you sat in the limo in complete silence. Isis had taken to staring out the window with her fingers lightly touching the golden eye-shaped necklace she wore. You closed your eyes and hummed to yourself, leaning your head back against the leather seat.

With only the low whirring sound of the car engine to fill the air, you were left in quiet solitude with nothing but your thoughts. Painted on the back of your eyelids stood the still image of the two cloaked men, one frozen mid-sprint and the other pointing a gun at his partner. Although the image didn’t shift at all, the sound of a gunshot rang through your head, and you felt your fingers twitch in reflex. On queue, a terrified blood curdling scream filled your ears, but it was somewhat dull and muted, as if you were hearing is play underwater. You swallowed hard and attempted to will the thought out of your mind, but despite your best efforts the muffled, horrified screams continued to loop. 

_“You were created to kill.”_

You could feel your heartbeat picking up, rather, you could hear it pounding faster and faster in your ears. The pulse in your neck was throbbing uncomfortably, and it would have been all you could focus on had the screams not become a garbled mess. You weren’t positive whose they were anymore; at some point they had stopped being entirely the two cloaked mens’ and had melded with the others you’d been forced to hear over the years. 

_“Your destiny was to become a killing machine. Nothing more. There’s no point fighting it.”_

From the depths of your thoughts, behind the terrified screams of other prisoners in the lab, of victims you couldn’t even remember the faces of anymore, Gozaburo Kaiba’s voice drawled along clearly and methodically. You could remember everything he had ever said to you, no matter how much you desperately wanted to forget. There were so many sounds you wanted to forget, and yet somehow you always ended up back in this place, trapped inside of your own brain with nothing but noise.

_“You’re no longer human. You’re a monster.”_

A bump, perhaps a pothole, shook the entire back of the limousine violently enough to jolt you out of your thoughts. Your eyes snapped open and you shot your head up, a gasp trapped in your throat. Isis was still staring blankly out the window, seemingly unaffected by the car’s shaking or your reaction. You managed to swallow the breath in your throat and noticed that your hand was gripping at your thigh so tightly that your knuckles had turned a ghostly white. You pried your fingers from your jeans and brought your hand close to your face, placing a fingertip at your mouth to bite at one of your nails. 

Your stomach was churning. 

\-----

For most people, saving the life of an innocent high school student who was about to be crushed by a shipping crate would have likely been a satisfying end to an afternoon. For Seto Kaiba, it was a colossal waste of time. He wanted nothing more than to get as far away from Yugi and his band of dweebs as possible, if only for the next hour since they would all be boarding his blimp soon anyway. After the amount of bullshit he’d had to deal with this afternoon, an hour of peace was all he wanted right now. Under normal circumstances, he would have likely already dragged his little brother away from the terrible influences in present company, namely Katsuya Jounouchi. 

Especially Katsuya Jounouchi.

Unfortunately for him, Mokuba was occupied with leaning over the edge of the dock talking frantically with the rest of the Geek Patrol. Well, the members who weren’t, presumably, drowning in the ocean after being dragged down by a fifty-ton anchor. Vaguely, Seto wondered if the company could be sued if either of the two boys died whilst competing in his tournament. Upon entering, all duelists had to sign a waiver stating the company wasn’t responsible for any injuries, but he wasn’t positive if dying fell under that clause. He’d need to consult his legal team.

He was getting a migraine.

\-----

“There must be some sort of mistake,” Isis said as the limousine came to a halt. “This isn’t the location of the finals. This is just a cafe.” 

You opened your eyes and lifted your head up, cracking your neck in the process. “Nope, no mistake.” 

“This is the location the locator cards revealed?” She asked suspiciously. 

“Nope,” you brushed off her concern as you opened the door and scooted out of the limousine, “I’m just hungry.” 

“You’re… hungry?” She asked, dumbfounded. 

“Yeah, I’m a human being, I get hungry.” You turned back toward her and peered into the limousine from the open door, “Are you coming in or are you going to sit in the car until I come back?” 

“I… think I’d prefer to stay here. Will you be long?” 

“As long as I want to be.”

“We should really hurry to the finals before--”

“We won’t be late.” You assured her before shutting the door behind you and crossing the street toward the small cafe. That woman was going to drive you absolutely nuts by the end of this tournament, you were sure of it. 

Saying you were hungry had been a lie. When you gave her the directions to the cafe you had been hungry, sure, but now as you entered the restaurant the smell of fresh bread and fried chicken hit you with a wave of nausea. Your stomach lurched, and rather than head to the counter to order anything you made a beeline toward the restrooms. 

The sound of screams echoed in your head again, and you found a sudden build up of saliva in your mouth. Though your tried to swallow it, your throat went dry and you about gagged on it. You pushed open the door to the women's room and just as quickly about slammed it behind you and bolted the lock shut. 

You promptly dropped to your knees in front of the toilet and emptied chunks of you stomach’s contents out into the water with a disgusting wet _splash_. You could feel cold sweat on the back of your neck, and your fingertips trembled against your skin as you tried to wipe away the wetness. You coughed desperately into the toilet bowl, choking on a breath that refused to come out of your airways. Your head was pounding, your ears were ringing, and the only thing you could hear were more underwater screams. After coughing a few more times you finally managed to take in a desperate gasp of air. The smell of toilet water permeated your nose and prompted another heave, though this time only stomach acid poured from your mouth and nose, burning your throat and nostrils as you coughed into the now dull brown waters of the toilet. 

You felt as if all the energy had been sucked out of you, as you shivered on the ground leaned over the toilet, cold sweat sticking to your back and neck. You couldn’t be sure what exactly your body was reacting to, perhaps you had exerted too much energy when you paused time to help Mokuba escape from the Ghouls. But you hadn’t had nearly this violent of a reaction to using your power in years, normally you just felt tired and shaky afterwards. Now, you were exhausted. Maybe, you thought, you were feeling sick because you had… well, you had.... Of course the responsibility wasn’t entirely on you. You hadn’t been the one to pull the trigger, and you had convinced yourself that he had deserved it. It was a quick death. He barely had time to scream. You had saved Mokuba’s life. 

You had killed a man. 

After being sure you weren’t going to vomit anymore, you shakily lifted yourself from the ground, using one of your hands to dab away the water that had formed in the corners of your eyes. You tore a piece of toilet paper from the roll near the toilet and began blowing your nose into it in an attempt to remove the acid. You wiped your mouth with it and tossed it into the toilet, glancing into it absently to see chunks of what you assumed was your breakfast floating to the top. You coughed again as you pressed the button on the top of the toilet to flush it, making your way to the sink which had a water-stained mirror in front of it. 

You turned on the water as hot as it could go, thrusting your hands under it and scrubbing at your skin furiously, as if to remove some sort of invisible stains. You raised your head up at the mirror, taking a long look at your face. Dark circles had formed under your eyes beneath your makeup, your lips flattened into a sort of impassive frown. Your skin had taken on a paler than usual tone, making you look as exhausted and sickly as you felt. 

After your hands had been rubbed raw, you turned off the water and dried them with some paper towels before tossing them in the recycling bin near the door. You stood in the middle of the bathroom for a moment, staring between the door and your tired reflection in the mirror, before ultimately moving to one of the empty corners of the room and pressing your back into the wall. You sunk down to the ground and buried your forehead into your knees, then wrapped your arms around your legs and closed your eyes with a heavy sigh. You decided you would stay in the bathroom until you no longer looked like death itself. 

\-----

Mokuba had decided not to tell his brother about the whole almost getting shot thing until they were sitting comfortably in the back of a Kaiba Corp helicopter on their way to the stadium. Well it wasn’t like he was _positive_ he had almost gotten shot, but he was pretty sure there was a chance he had almost gotten shot. He tried his hardest to relay that information to his brother in the most cohesive way he could, but he sort of ended up explaining what had happen in a complete mess of words. It probably wouldn’t have mattered either way how he tried to tell the story, because as soon as the words had left his mouth, Seto immediately began drilling him for information. Mokuba could practically feel the anger radiating from him as he pulled a laptop from his briefcase and began furiously typing at the keyboard. 

Although Mokuba knew it was the right thing to do, telling his brother and all, he was sort of regretting it with how bad of a mood he was now in. Well, it wasn’t like he was in a good mood to being with, especially after sitting through the duel between Yugi and Jounouchi. Man that had been terrifying. Seto probably hadn’t thought so, Mokuba was pretty sure his brother thought that whole fiasco was a waste of time or something. Seto couldn’t possibly have been scared watching that duel, he looked so calm during the whole thing, even when he was saving Anzu from the Ghouls. 

Mokuba wondered, as he watched him barking orders to someone on the phone about rounding up every last Ghoul in the city so he could personally tear the limb from limb for hurting his little brother, if Seto ever felt fear. He wished he could be as brave and fearless as his brother someday.

\-----

Both you and Isis arrived at Kaiba Corp. stadium just after nightfall, after Blade had sent you a text that Mutou Yugi and his group of friends had already entered the blimp at the far end of the stadium. No one else was in sight, other that two tall men in suits standing at the foot of the ramp to the blimp, eyes hidden behind sunglasses despite the fact that it was dark out. 

You and Isis walked to them, and you pulled your six locator cards from your bag and extended them toward the two men. One of the men, the taller of the two with an interesting shade of blue hair nodded to you. 

“You’re the eighth duelist,” he confirmed. Both men introduced themselves to you as Isono and Fuguta.

“It’s a good thing you arrived just now, otherwise we would have taken off without you.” Isono said.

“Without me?” 

“Yes ma’am, Mister Kaiba ordered us to leave immediately.” 

“That… sounds impulsive,” you hummed, “Good to hear he hasn’t changed.” 

The two men raised an eyebrow at your comment but didn’t respond. 

“Anyway ma’am, follow us on board, we’ll show you to the rest of the duelists.”

“Sorry miss,” Fuguta said to Isis, holding his hands up, “But only duelists are allowed on the blimp.”

“She’s with me,” you said. 

“Still, we’re not allowed to let anyone other that duelists on.”

“You let Mutou Yugi and Katsuya Jounouchi’s friends onto the ship with no trouble, so I was simply under the assumption that I could also bring a guest.” You refuted coolly. 

“H-How did you?” A suddenly very flustered Isono choked out. 

“Are you going to let us on or not?” You challenged.

Isono and Fuguta looked between each other as if they weren’t entire sure how to react to you, but after a moment they simultaneously cleared their throats and gestured for you to follow them. You and Isis followed them up the ramp to the blimp, and two of them lead you through a series of bright, white hallways. You walked past a long corridor with numbered silver doors on either side, and after turning a few corners you glanced to your side to realize that at some point Isis had disappeared.

You wondered where she had run off too briefly, but decided you prefered not having her floating around you. You continued silently following after the two men in suits until you reached a group of people in the middle of a wide hallway, all talking amongst themselves. 

“Seto-sama, the eighth duelist has arrived.” 

The brunette in a long, billowing white coat turned his attention from the other duelists in the area and looked over at Isono, then to you. He narrowed his eyes to you immediately in thought. Next to him, Mokuba had also turned to look over at you, but rather than the same intense expression his brother wore, his eyes almost immediately lit up. His mouth slowly opened so wide in shock you were almost afraid it was going to unhinge. He muttered your name just loud enough for you to hear, and at the sound of it the elder Kaiba’s eyes widened in recognition.

“I can’t believe it,” Mokuba said, “You’re actually here.” 

It was the first time you’d seen the youngest Kaiba brother in six years, and it took just about all your willpower to not start crying like a child as he ran across the hall to hug you. His face planted firmly into your stomach and he wrapped his arms around your waist, so tight that it almost made it hard to breath. Seto had directed his gaze down to his little brother, arms crossed firmly over his chest. The rest of the duelists and and their friends had since stopped talking amongst themselves and were staring at you and Mokuba in awe. 

“I thought it was you in the database but… but you’re really here.” He spoke into your stomach so you could hardly hear him. 

“Yeah,” you replied softly, trying your hardest to keep your words steady as you placed your hands on his back in a sort of half-hug. “Good to see you, kiddo.”

“Who is that, Kaiba?” Asked a girl with a short bob of brown hair. 

“Yeah, are you guys friends?” Another of Mutou Yugi’s friends with dark raven hair chimed in. 

Seto said nothing in reply as Mokuba tore himself away from you, his eyes bright with childish excitement, and his wide smile was enough to warm your heart. The two of you walked across the hallway toward his elder brother, who still had his arms crossed and jaw clenched in a way that made a knot form in your stomach. 

The look he gave you was one that could kill, anger seething off his body while he refused to speak a word to you. You weren’t sure what you had been expecting to see from your former best friend after so long; you knew Gozaburo had told him lie upon lie about where you had gone so you didn’t exactly expect Seto to welcome you with open arms the same way Mokuba had. Still, you hadn’t been prepared for this much hatred to be directed your way. You drew in a deep breath as you walked closer toward him, Mokuba darting his big eyes between the two of you with more concern than made you feel comfortable. 

“Hey, Seto--”

“How did you get into this tournament?” He demanded. 

“Uh…” You cleared your throat, “I applied?”

“You’re not a duelist. I curated the list of qualified duelists myself, you were nowhere on it.”

“Well… I had no trouble getting in so--”

“You don’t belong here.”

You sighed, “Take it up with your staff, then, that’s not my problem.”

Seto looked down at his brother, “Mokuba, earlier you said you saw her in the database?”

Mokuba looked like a deer in the headlights, nodding slowly in reply.

At his answer, the elder Kaiba narrowed his eyes in suspicion, “Under what name?”

“Um… Ghost.” He mumbled, casting his eyes down to the ground.

Seto’s eyes snapped back to you, “I should have you disqualified.”

Well now you were just annoyed.

“On what grounds?”

“Entering under a false name. Hacking your way into my database. Not to mention the probable other illegal ways you wormed your way into my tournament.” 

“It’s not a false name it’s a nickname, which isn’t against the rules, believe me I checked. And I didn’t do anything illegal!” 

“I highly doubt that.”

Okay so Seto was totally in the right to be suspicious of your entry into Battle City. Not only had Blade obtained your rarest card you were using to duel in the tournament through… less than savory methods, but Doll had hacked a doctored file for you into the Kaiba Corporation database. So yeah, okay, multiple illegal things had absolutely been done to get you into the tournament. But technically you hadn’t been the one to do either of those things, so it wasn’t a complete lie to say you hadn’t done anything illegal, right?

“Come on Kaiba, if you’re too scared to duel the girl you should jus’ say so,” came the taunting of a blonde boy who had been watching the argument with the rest of his group. 

“Jounouchi,” Seto focused his gaze on the boy, “You’re honestly stupid enough to think I’m afraid of this disappointment?” 

Harsh.

“Disappointment? I made it all the way here, didn’t I?” You snapped.

“Save it.” 

Before he could utter another threat, the blonde boy spoke up again, “So what if she enta’d unda a nickname? Lotsa’ people did that! If she’s a good duelist I wanna shot at duelin’ her!” 

“Come to think of it,” Seto hummed, “How did a dog like you make it into this tournament?” 

“Quit callin’ me a dog! I came in second in Duelist Kingdom for cryin’ out loud!”

Seto looked between you and Jounouchi with a glare, “Looks like a few people didn’t do their jobs properly in registration.”

Considering you were already off the ground, you highly doubted Seto would land the blimp just to kick you out of his tournament. So long as you were here to be in control of whatever situation occurred in the plot to kill the Kaiba brothers, it didn’t really matter if you were dueling in the semifinals or not. Still, there was a fire burning in the pit of your stomach in response to the venom Seto was spitting your way. Whether Duelist’s Pride was real or not you weren’t positive, but now that you had him mouthing off about your dueling skills, you kind of wanted to show him up. Or, at the very least, duel someone else so he could see you weren’t some dumb kid. 

“The two of you are lucky I’m feeling generous tonight,” Seto suddenly spat harshly, “Though, it’s not like either of you will make it past the next round of duels anyway with whatever pathetic decks you’ve brought.” 

“Alright Rich Boy, I’m gunna--”

“Jounouchi stop!” The brunette girl in tall platform sandals said in exasperation. 

“Yeah dude come on. Kaiba’s not worth it.” Said one of his other friends, with perhaps the most gaudy, pointed imitation of a pompadour you’d ever seen. 

Katsuya Jounouchi growled in frustration, but rather than continuing to yell at the tall young man, he settled for muttering something under his breath. Next to him, Mutou Yugi let out a sigh of relief, as did the rest of the members of the group.

“Finally, the mutt’s been muzzled,” a very smug Seto scoffed as he turned from you all, gesturing for Mokuba to follow him. The younger Kaiba shot you a relieved grin, and waved to you as the two of them set off down the hallway. Seto’s long trench coat billowed behind him and Mokuba had to about jog to keep up with his brother’s long strides, until they turned a corner and were out of sight. Isono cleared his throat as the Kaiba boys left, and turned his attention to the rest of you.

“Well… Let us show the rest of you to your rooms, then.” 

Fuguta gestured for you and the three other duelists that had qualified later in the night to follow him. You passed Isis as the five of you turned a corner toward the second half of numbered rooms, and upon seeing you she pushed herself from the wall she was leaning against to follow behind you. She suddenly looked oddly uncomfortable next to the three other duelists you were walking with; the boy with the long white hair and a striped shirt, a caramel-skinned young man with a plethora of golden body jewelry and entirely too much eyeliner, and the mysterious, tall man in a long black cloak far in front of the rest of you. 

“So sorry,” came the sudden, soft voice of the white-haired boy behind you, “But I don’t believe I caught your name.” 

“Me?” You asked, turning your head slightly to look at him, “Just call me Ghost.” 

“Ghost? That’s a bit… occult-ish don’t you think?” 

“It’s not intended to be.” You said coldly. 

“Oh. Well, ah, I’m Bakura. Ryou Bakura. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” 

“Sure, you too kid.” 

Fuguta turned to the five of you and began distributing numbered key cards, which each matched up with a door along the hallway. Unsurprisingly, you were given room number eight, presumably since you were the last duelist to arrive on the blimp. You swiped the keycard and entered the room with Isis trailing behind you. Inside was a queen-size bed pushed against one wall, and a set of comfortable looking chairs around a coffee table next to a window that looked to the sky outside. On the other side of the room was a bar and a miniature fridge, plus an open door which lead to a small bathroom. 

Isis immediately made herself comfortable in the room, taking a seat in one of the chairs by the window and reserving herself to silence, which you were more than thankful for. You dropped your bag and duel disk on the foot of the bed and fell back on the mattress, focusing your gaze on the cool metal ceiling above your head as you replayed your conversation with the Kaiba boys in your head. 

All you could picture was the venomous look in Seto’s eyes, piercing through you. The last time you had seen him, all those years ago, those eyes of his still held a glimmer of happiness. This time, the only thing you had seen was your own reflection staring back at you, hollow, as if you were nothing more than a piece of trash. A dull ache had begun to weigh down on your chest, and you suddenly wished Isis wasn’t sitting like a statue on the other side of the room, because you wanted nothing more in that moment than to cry your eyes out like a child.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't been writing as much lately. I've been too busy cosplaying memes >->


	10. Responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who's commented over the past couple months asking for an update! And so sorry I've been so slow writing this. I've been working on a pretty lengthy D&D campaign so all my creative juices have gone into that. I don't even know what fanfic writing is anymore @-@
> 
> Uhhhh TW copious amounts of child abuse in this chapter

_  
You had been fighting against the tight metal cuffs bolting you to the table to the point that your skin was rubbed raw and the bones in your wrists ached. You had lost almost all the blood circulation in your hands, and your fingers had gone numb. The room you were being held in was cloaked in pitch darkness, the only source of light to speak of was a soft red light on the ceiling, blinking on and off in a steady rhythm. It was probably a smoke detector, although now that you thought about it a holding cell seemed an odd place for one of those._

_You could hear the bustling of people walking through the corridor on the other side of the door, shoes hitting the linoleum tiles and the wheels of beds and trolleys spinning down the hall. There was the idle chatter of doctors and scientists as they walked, talking about one thing or another on the outside world. How their wives and children were doing, what they saw on the television last night. Average everyday conversation. It only served to further your frustration of your current situation, chained to a metal table in blackness, waiting for someone to enter the room and explain to you what exactly you were doing here._

_You’d been at the lab for little over a week, and most of that time had been spent in the small cell that was meant to pass for a room that you shared with Doll. The few times you’d been outside of there were for a series of physical examinations, blood work, and other tests you weren’t sure the purpose of. You’d gotten your plasma drawn, which had been a little more painful than you thought it would be, and one doctor had forced you to take swallow a mystery liquid that had about set your throat on fire and caused a three-day long cough that made your ribcage ache._

_Other than two or three different examination rooms and the inside of your cell, you hadn’t seen any other rooms in the lab until now. Though, ‘see’ wasn’t exactly the right word to use considering it was so dark you couldn’t actually see anything. You’d at least seen the way to the room; you hadn’t been blindfolded or anything when a six-foot tall guard pushed you down the hallway and opened the door to this room, before unceremoniously shoving you inside and bolting your handcuffs to the table. He’d left as quickly as he came, ignoring your demands to know where you were or why it was so dark, slamming the door closed and shrouding you in blackness._

_This had been a terrible week._

_The seconds ticked away slowly, and you occupied yourself by staring up and the blinking red dot on the ceiling, counting the number of times it flickered as you waited. You counted up to two-hundred twelve before being interrupted by the door to the room opening slowly. Light flooded the room as the fluorescent bulb overhead flicked on, and you squeezed your eyes shut with a groan._

_You squinted through the light for about ten seconds before your eyes adjusted, leaving you staring up at Gozaburo Kaiba pulling the chair across from you away from the table. He sat down and folded his hands together on the metal surface, glaring down at you. What the hell was he doing here?_

_“What do you want?” You asked._

_Silence._

_“Why am I here?” You again demanded, “You had your men take me to this lab but no one told me why I’m here.”_

_Gozaburo simply stared down at you._

_“Do my parents even know where I am?”_

_A beat._

_“On paper,” He finally spoke coolly, “You’ve been sent to a very nice boarding school overseas.”_

_“You honestly think they’d believe--”_

_“Why would your father have any reason to distrust his employer of twenty years? I have only your best interests in mind.”_

_You stared up at him incredulously._

_“Seto was slacking with his studies, spending too much time with you. I saw it fit to remove you so he can focus.”_

_“Re...remove me? You put me in here because Seto likes me?” You asked, stupefied._

_He continued to glare at you._

_“You’re serious? Your son has a little crush on me so you throw me in prison? That’s… that’s fucking ridiculous!”_

_“Watch the language, kid.”_

_“I did exactly what you asked me to, I turned him down!”_

_“You should have been harsher with him,” Gozaburo replied stoically._

_“Harsher?” You scoffed, “Like you?”_

_He ignored your jab and continued, “You weren’t forceful enough with him. You were too kind and continued to serve as a distraction. So here you are.”_

_“You’re saying this is my fault?” You reflexively pulled at the chains around your wrists but they didn’t budge._

_“Who else’s would it be? You and Seto are equally to blame here,” he waved you off with his hand as if the explanation wasn’t worth his time._

_“Go fuck yourself!”_

_“Language,” he reminded you again, harsher._

_“This isn’t my or Seto’s fault.” You spat, “You’re just a power-crazy asshole who needs to control people.”_

_“I said watch the language you miserable brat!” He slammed a hand down on the metal table, making you recoil backwards and the chains around your wrists clatter violently. You kept your mouth pursed in a thin line and glowered up at him, determined not to let him see any fear. You hated him. You fucking hated him. And you were not going to bend to his stupid demands._

_“Let me be very clear about this you ingrate: you don’t want to make me angry.”_

_“I don’t give a shit how you feel.”_

_The back of his hand flew into your field of vision so quickly you didn’t have time to process it, and with your wrists chained to the table you weren’t able to defend yourself. His knuckled connected with your cheekbone and sent pain rippling across your face. The sheer force of it snapped your neck to the side, leaving you staring at the wall across the room, the spot where his hand met your skin burning._

_Fuck. This. Man._

_“You’re going to learn there are consequences to your actions,” he said, and with a snap of his fingers the door to the hallway opened. A man dressed in the guards’ uniform entered with a somewhat large portable television. He set it down on the table in front of you and you furrowed your brow down at the blank screen._

_“Are you going to bore me to death with public broadcasting or something?” You muttered sardonically._

_Gozaburo pressed a button on the little remote control in his hands, and the television screen came to life, revealing a black and white scene of a bedroom. It looked like it had been taking from a security camera, judging by the angle and the lack of color. The bedroom looked familiar to you, after a moment you recognized it as one of the guest bedrooms of the Kaiba mansion._

_You stared at the screen for a while, waiting for something to happen, the occasional black spot popping up the only indication that time was passing. After watching in confused silence for about forty seconds the figure of a child appeared in the camera’s view, dressed in a long-sleeve shirt beneath a sweater vest. From the well-trimmed crop of straight hair you recognized the boy as Seto, backing away from something outside of the camera’s field of vision._

_In an instant he tumbled to the ground as an arm came into the frame, shoving him to the ground as he tripped over his own feet, arms instinctively reaching out to break his fall. He ended up on his elbows, pushing himself up to look at whomever has pushed him, and you stared open-mouthed at the television._

_“Why…?” You mumbled, aghast, in a sort of reflex as the large form of a man walked into frame and towered over your friend’s form. You didn’t need to see the color of the tacky maroon suit to know it was Gozaburo Kaiba in the room with Seto. He had the same menacing air about him that he did standing in the same room as you, one lacking mercy and compassion._

_You felt a wave of nausea wash over you as Gozaburo’s foot connected with your best friend’s stomach. You sat there in shock for a beat, then two, before you instinctively pulled at the metal cuffs around your wrist in an effort to free yourself. The cuffs rattled and chafed at your skin as you yanked at them, hot tears burning at the corners of your eyes._

_“You monster. Why are you doing this?”_

_Gozaburo said nothing in reply, and as desperately as you wanted to look up at him, you couldn’t tear your eyes away from the monochromatic screen. Desperate for the scene to end, you watch helplessly as the mess of hair on Seto’s head was used as a handle to pull him off the ground. Then, as if he were nothing more than a ragdoll, his body flew to the other side of the television to the hardwood floor._

_In the handful of horror movies you’d seen, you always thought the scariest parts were the quiet, suspenseful ones. The ones where you were watching the character on the screen in tense silence, waiting for the sound of a scream. That’s sort of how you felt now staring at the black and white silent film playing before you. You were waiting for a sound, any sound, to draw your focus away from your trembling fingertips or the knot in your stomach._

_But no sound came from the television, even where you knew there should have been noise. Being forced to imaging the pained vocalizations whenever Seto opened his mouth and there was silence was infinitely more unnerving than actually having to hear it. All you could do was guess what he sounded like, how much pain he was really in, and you had no idea if what you were imagining was better or worse than how he truly sounded. What was worse, you felt disgusted with yourself for imagining it._

_“I thought I should give you some incentive to be a good test subject in this lab.” Gozaburo’s voice cut through your thoughts icily._

_It took your mind a long time to process what was being said to you in conjunction to the scene on the screen. You blinked a few times before raising your head to look up at him._

_“In...centive?”_

_“Yes. You don’t seem to care as much for your own well-being as you do for little Seto and Mokuba, so I thought I’d adjust my approach.”_

_You furrowed your brow in confusion until he continued._

_“It’s basic conditioning. If you’re a good girl you’ll be rewarded, and if you cause trouble for the doctors here… well I’ll be putting in some extra hours punishing your little friends.”_

_You swallowed hard, looking back at the television screen for just long enough to watch Seto struggle to climb up the side of the bed, clutching at his stomach with one hand, before falling motionlessly onto the comforter._

_“You’re threatening me with Seto?” You asked angrily._

_An oppressive laugh left his mouth at your question, eyes boring into you like you were just an ant or a worm compared to him. “No. What happens to Seto is entirely up to him. You don’t get to save him.”_

_“Then why are you showing me this?”_

_Gozaburo reached into his suit and pulled out a small piece of paper, flipping it over and sliding it to sit next to the miniature television on the table. You stared down incredulously at the familiar wild mane of black hair and warm grey eyes._

_“Because what happens to little Mokuba is on your shoulders now.” You could hear the venom in his voice, as if he were a snake watching his prey squirm hopelessly before him. He was reveling in the power he held over you._

_You heard him scoot the chair he was in away form the table and stand up, but you couldn’t will yourself to look up and away from the picture of Mokuba. You felt your bottom lip quivering despite your best efforts to keep composed. Gozaburo’s hand came into your view as he snatched the picture up from the table, and a cold pit formed in your stomach as if solidifying the fact that your friend was being held hostage._

_“I expect you to be on your best behavior from now on, kid. I have many friends who will be observing you during your tests, and the better you perform, the more money you’ll make me.”_

_You felt like you were about to throw up._

_“Just remember, if you disappoint me--” He placed both hands on the small picture and ripped it in half, right down the middle of Mokuba’s face. A threatening grin was painted on his face, and all you could do was look at the two photo halves as you fought back a wave of terrified tears. Gozaburo left you alone in the room shortly thereafter, where you sat in silence for what felt like hours, left staring at the black and white television screen in front of you. The entire time, Seto’s body didn’t move from its spot on the bed, and you couldn’t do anything more that watch.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heck dude I don't even know what I'm writing anymore OTL


	11. Bittersweet

Hours later you arrived in the large meeting room in the middle of the blimp, where everyone else had already begun gathering. On either end of the room buffet tables were lined with various snacks, meals, and desserts, which multiple members of your present company had already started filling their plates with. You decided to take a pastry from one of the tables and munch on it absently as you glanced around the room. Seto and Mokuba had just entered though they made no moves toward either of the buffet tables. Presumably, they had already eaten in their rooms. 

Mokuba called your name and bounded over to you, his loud voice drawing the attention of everyone else in the room. They seemed just as intrigued by your presence as they had been last night. Mokuba began chatting with you idly about how you had slept the night prior and how you were doing while his brother made it a point not to look at or speak to you. After a few moments of you and Mokuba chatting about nothing in particular, the elder called his brother back to his side impatiently, and he scampered off with a wave and a promise to catch up later. With the younger once again standing by his brother, the curious group of Mutou Yuugi’s friends gravitated toward you, and you gave them a polite bow of your head.

“We didn’t really get to introduce ourselves last night, I’m Yuugi, it’s nice to meet you!”

“You as well,” you nodded. 

The rest of the group introduced themselves one by one; Otogi Ryuuji, Hiroto Honda, Kawai Shizuka, and Mazaki Anzu. The three other finalists you already recognized, Katsuya Jounouchi, Kujaku Mai, and Ryou Bakura, seemed even more eager to exchange pleasantries with you. You were a bit caught off guard when Katsuya said your real name, and you blinked at him a few times in surprise. 

“Mokuba said it earlia’.” 

“Ah, right.” You hummed. Considering you were already aboard the blimp, you supposed it didn’t matter too much if those flying with you knew your birth name. Though, it had been a while since anyone called you by it, your teammates and the others from Labs all called you Ghost. You didn’t directly interact with many others, at least not in cases where you had to introduce yourself. It was actually a little nice to have a human name again. 

“So why’s ya duelin’ name Ghost anywho?” Katsuya asked. 

“Oh, it’s just a nickname I got when I was a kid.” 

Seto shot you a curious look that you caught out of your peripheral vision, but he made no comment. 

“Well if it ain’t a nickname havin’ ta do with ya deck I’m curious what kinda’ monstas ya duel with,” he said, “hopefully I’ll be da one ta duel ya.”

“I’m sure it would be an interesting duel, to say the least,” you replied noncommittally and offered him a polite smile. 

He flashed you a cheesy grin, “Just because you’re a girl don’t think I’m gonna go easy on ya’ though!”

You were trying to figure out why exactly he seemed to shorten some of his words despite his apparent lack of an accent as the girl with a short brown bob smacked him on the shoulder with the back of her hand and began reprimanding him for his sexist remark. Mutou Yuugi and one of the rest of his posse laughed lightheartedly behind them. 

Considering his group of friends seemed to have idle chatter covered, you decided not to respond to the blonde, instead looking over at the bingo machine that had begun erecting from the floor. The laughter beside you also died down at the sight of the massive contraption. True to typical Seto Kaiba fashion, the machine was in the shape of a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. One head pointed upward into a circular glass dome housing eight numbered balls. The other heads pointed downward, presumably to spit out the two chosen balls. The machine was almost double the size of Isono, who was standing in front of it with his arms outstretched on either side. 

You whistled, “I see you spared no expense.” 

Seto glared at you like he wanted to strangle you, though this time rather than making you feel upset you grew more curious. Curious about what lies, exactly, Gozaburo Kaiba had told about your reason for leaving the brothers behind all those years ago. Curious if those lies were the only reason he thought so poorly of you at the moment. You’d really need to find a way to get him alone today and try to talk to him. 

His head snapped back at attention as Isono began explaining the concept of the bingo machine and how it worked. The eight balls would be launched in the air and bounced around the glass dome, and whichever two were picked would determine which duelists were pit against each other. 

As the machine started up you idly wondered which of the other seven you’d most want to duel. Katsuya was already at the bottom of the list, not only were you uninterested in dueling his luck-based deck, but he talked entirely too much for you to handle right now. Yuugi was an incredibly skilled duelist, and now that you were already on the blimp headed to Alcatraz it didn’t really matter whether you won or lost. Though now that you thought about it, if you were the one to knock him out of the tournament Seto would probably be so put-out he’d likely never speak to you again. Kujaku Mai had a powerful deck that you wouldn’t mind going up against, and though you’d only been briefly introduced to her she seemed decent enough.

As for the three duelists you’d never heard of, you had no idea what to expect from them. The white-haired male who’d introduced himself last night and this morning as Ryou, the tall man dressed in a black cloak, and the young man covered in gold body jewelry were each eccentric in their own right. You supposed it would be fine to duel any of them, it would be your first duel in the tournament where you would have no idea what to expect. 

But as you thought it over more and more, you realized you wanted to duel Seto most of all. To prove to him that you deserved to be standing on this blimp as his equal, that you weren’t the piece of garbage he apparently thought you were. To force him to look at you, rather than looking down at you. To try to have an actual conversation with him. 

“Our first duel will be as follows: Mutou Yuugi versus Ryou Bakura!”

Excellent, you thought, now you had a one in five chance of dueling your best friend. 

You had seriously considered going back to your room to wait for the next duel, you thought you could better spend your time training rather than watching the two high school boys battle it out. But Mokuba had grabbed your hand and tugged you along with him to one of the elevators that he and Seto were headed towards. All the other duelists and their friends instead decided to ride in the elevator on the opposite side of the blimp, which left you and the two Kaiba brothers alone. 

“So,” Mokuba chirped as soon as you were in the elevator, “You went to a boarding school in Germany right? How was it?”

Germany, huh? Your parents had been told you were sent to France. You hadn’t thought much on if Mokuba would ask about your disappearance from their lives. Initially, you figured that they would have uncovered the secret tests Gozaburo had been performing on children after Seto had taken over. But from Seto’s reaction to seeing you and Mokuba’s naive question that didn’t seem to be the case. 

“Honestly, it was pretty awful,” you said, deciding to keep the information about the lab to yourself but unwilling to lie to your friend. “I would have much rathered stay in Japan.”

“Why did you leave then?” He asked. From your peripheral vision you noticed Seto had taken an annoyed interest in your conversation. 

“It wasn’t my choice, Gozaburo sent me off.” 

“Really?”

You nodded.

Mokuba looked aghast, “Even though you didn’t want to go?” 

“Men in power have a way of getting what they want.”

“I didn’t take you as someone to give up so easily,” Seto scoffed demeaningly, arms crossed over his chest. 

“Easily?” You blinked up at him as the elevator doors opened to the skyline, a blast of cool air blowing your hair into your face. “You have no idea what I--”

“I’m done with this conversation.” He interrupted as he strode out, leaving you and Mokuba in the elevator for a moment before he tugged on your hand. 

“I’m sorry,” he mumbled, “I thought if I could get the three of us alone again he might be a little nicer to you.”

You shrugged. 

“He’s just angry, really. I’m sure he’ll get over it and things will be back to how they were.” Mokuba insisted.

“Mokuba I appreciate the effort, but… it’s been five years since I last saw you two. Things can’t get back to the way they were so easily, if they’ll even go back at all.”

Mokuba took that as his cue to end the conversation as he let go of your hand, joining his brother’s side on the lower platform of the blimp. On the opposite side, Namu, Kujaku, Katsuya, and the rest of Yuugi’s group of friends were standing and talking amidst themselves. You decided you’d rather stand in an uncomfortable silence by your childhood friends than be forced to pick sides in a duel you didn’t particularly care about. You stood about five feet away from the brothers and leaned your lower back against the safety railing around the perimeter of the platform that kept people from blowing off. 

During the duel between Ryou and Mutou, the brothers all but ignored your presence, other than the occasional glances Mokuba sent your way. Seto seemed to be making it a point to not look in your direction, arms still crossed with his neck tilted up to watch the duel. You stood still and silent as you watched with a mild interest, if for no other reason than because it was serving as a distraction from your thoughts. 

Admittedly, you became more invested in the duel as it went on. It was exciting, at the very least, and although it was a bit too dramatic for your liking your interest was piqued when Osiris was summoned to the field. You knew Seto was holding a God card, as was Yuugi, but you hadn’t had the pleasure of seeing either of them until now. You were in awe of how the bright crimson dragon wrapped itself around the blimp you all stood upon, and though you knew better it almost seemed like the card was real. Not just a hologram.

There was some story unfolding before you that you had a difficult time following, something about there being two souls inhabiting Ryou, something else about his evil persona having left the body vulnerable. At least, if the threats of the tall, hooded duelist known at Marik were to be believed. 

“Stop the duel!” Mazaki Anzu and some of the rest of Yuugi’s group began shouting from the other side of the blimp. Katsuya even had the audacity to scale the side of the upper platform to begin shouting at Isono.

On the upper platform, Ryou was on his knees begging to see a doctor. You squinted to try to get a better look at his face, his forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat and he looked so exhausted he could barely keep his eyes open. He was clutching his left arm and shaking. It seemed now the boy was in such a weak state that an attack from Osiris would do serious damage. Seto had programmed the duel disks and holograms to simulate the feeling of real attacks, and with Ryou looking like he was about to collapse, you had to admit even you were worried for his health. As you turned to look over at Seto and ask what might happen to him after a blast from Osiris, he was already glaring up at Yuugi. 

“I’ll make this an easy choice for you,” he said firmly, “finish your friend and end this duel. Now.”

The lack of sympathy in his voice startled you. Wasn’t he at all worried about what might happen to a boy in that much pain? Did he think the white-haired boy was faking his injury? You might have thought so too, with how easily he was standing one minute and about to pass out the next. But you had seen that look on his face too many times before in the lab, he was in real physical pain. You were about to tell Seto that he wasn’t faking his injury and needed to see a doctor, when a blast of light surrounded his form and in an instant he was again standing on his feet.

“What the fuck is going on?” You muttered to yourself, looking over Ryou’s face to confirm that he once again looked perfectly healthy.

Thankfully, by the time you were getting fed-up with trying to follow the strangeness of the duel, Yuugi finished off his opponent with an attack from Osiris, and you pushed yourself off the railing with every intention to get the hell downstairs. You were getting a headache, and needed to take some medicine before the next duel, if you even decided to watch. 

True to your nickname, you were in the elevator before Mokuba had even noticed your disappearance.

\-----

“When did she leave?” Mokuba asked as he and Seto entered the elevator alone.

“Who?” 

“Don’t play dumb, you know who I’m talking about,” Mokuba frowned, “Why are you being so mean to her?” 

“I’m not treating her any differently than I would any other stranger.” He replied icily. 

“Oh please, you know that’s a lie. And what do you mean stranger? She’s our friend.” 

“That girl is no friend of mine.”

Mokuba let out a groan, trying to figure out what exactly he could say to his stubborn brother to get him to change his mind. Ever since you had disappeared from their lives when they were kids, he had turned a portion of his ire onto you. After hearing that their stepfather had been the one to send you away, though, he expected Seto to be a little less angry with you. 

“Why do you think Gozaburo sent her to Germany?”

“I’m sure it was a lie,” he hummed in reply, “I highly doubt he cared enough about her to send her to a boarding school.” 

“She didn’t look like she was lying… and it seems like a weird thing to lie about.” 

“Go look her up if you’re so interested, then.” The elder said as he stepped out of the elevator, “If she’s telling the truth, which I doubt she is, the files surely exist in the backup of the old database.”

Mokuba knew the suggestion was one his brother threw out to end the conversation, but it was tempting nonetheless. He was a bit busy watching the duels at the moment, but once the finals were over maybe he would do just that. If you were telling the truth, and their stepfather had really sent you away, maybe finding your file was the first step to repairing your relationship with his brother.

\-----

“Alright I need you to explain something to me.” You demanded as you entered your room and began rummaging in your bag for some painkillers. Isis looked startled by your sudden intrusion on your thoughts, and cocked her head to the side.

“Has the first duel ended? Was Yuugi victorious?”

“Yeah as to be expected, but that sort of leads into my question.” You popped two pills into your mouth and grabbed a bottle of water from the miniature fridge on the other side of the room, chugging a third of it. 

“Which would be?”

“That necklace you’re wearing,” you began, “You called it the Millenium Necklace right?” 

She nodded and you took a seat in the armchair across from her. 

“You say it gives you powers to see the future. What do the other items do?” 

“Why are you suddenly interested in the Millenium Items?” She didn’t seem defensive in her question, if anything she was genuinely curious. 

“I already knew Yuugi had one, I’ve seen him wearing it before, although I don’t know what it does. But his opponent also had one around his neck, he called it the Millenium Ring. And your brother Marik showed up with some golden looking rod as well, I assume that’s also one of the items.”

“My brother?” 

“Yeah, the tall guy in the black robe. Tattoos all over his face.”

“Ah,” she smoothed out the wrinkles of her dress absently, “So that’s the game they’re playing.”

“What game?” 

“The man in the robe… he’s not Marik. His name is Rishid, he’s my adoptive brother.”

You blinked and waited for her to elaborate, though she spent quite some time staring at the backs of her hands on her lap. 

“You asked me what the other items do. The Millenium Puzzle and Ring are both similar in that they each contain a portion of an ancient Egyptian spirit. The puzzle holds the soul of a great nameless pharaoh, and the ring is host to a powerful evil spirit who wishes to do our world harm.”

“And these spirits can use their wearers’ bodies as a host?”

She nodded. She was much easier to deal with when she didn't avoid your questions like she had in the limousine.

“Well that explains what was going on in that last duel,” you sighed. “And what about the rod?”

“Whomever holds the rod gains the power to take over the minds of others to use as their slaves,” she replied, “It is how my brother is able to control the rare hunters in this city.”

“Why does your other brother have this rod now?” 

“It’s likely a fake. Marik should be holding the real rod.”

You hummed, “So I assume the boy in the gold body jewelry is Marik, then? And he’s going by Namu just to gain the trust of everyone onboard?” 

She looked surprised by your assumption.

“He’s the only other non-Japanese on the blimp,” you shrugged, “figured it was either that or he was hiding somewhere.”

Isis nodded, “Do you have any other questions for me?”

_Attention. With the completion of the first duel, there will be a half-hour intermission. Afterwards, all remaining finalists are to report to the main concourse for the selection of the next duel._

“No, you can go back to staring out the window now.” You replied, taking your deck from the duel disk on your arm and standing up. You stretched your shoulders and made for the door, deciding to go for a walk through the halls while you sorted through your cards. After passing a few numbered metal doors you heard banging at the end of one of the hallways to your left, and tilted your head to better hear the commotion.

“Hey, are you crazy? He’s preparing for a duel! Stop that!” Came Mokuba’s flustered and panicked voice.

You picked up the pace and headed toward the sound of Katsuya shouting into, presumably, the metal door of Seto’s room.

“I’m talkin’ ta you rich boy, get out here now--!”

The shouting died down as you made it to the end of the hallway, peering around the corner to see the group of Yuugi’s friends minus Mazaki Anzu standing outside of Seto’s door. Mokuba glanced down the hall to see you poke your head out from the corner but he didn’t say anything, instead quickly returning his attention to the commotion. 

“Bakura’s hurt,” Yuugi pleaded, “We have to land, now! He needs a doctor right away.”

The group followed Seto into his room and disappeared behind the sliding metal door. You tapped your foot against the wall behind you for a few beats, shuffling through your cards in thought. There was no way Seto would land the blimp, not after how unconcerned he had been for Ryou’s health a few minutes prior. Knowing him he likely had doctors on board anyway.

You pushed yourself off the wall and continued walking in an effort to clear your head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now that I work third shift I spend a couple hours in a coffee shop after work. I've been getting some writing done because of it so I hope to update both my ongoing fics more often. Thank you to all of you who have been commenting on this work even through my slow updates. I promise I'm reading every single one and they each help motivate me to write more <3 
> 
> As always if you find any typos let me know, and if you care to, tell me what you thought of the chapter!


	12. Broken Promises, Empty Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a wholesome chapter with absolutely no foreshadowing or negative repercussions :,)

_You entered the Kaiba mansion on a frigid December morning, slipping your pure white gloves off your hands and placing them in your coat pocket. Behind you, one of the butlers had his arms full of neatly wrapped presents, sparkling gold and silver in the bright light of the foyer. A second butler bowed politely at your entrance and offered to take your baby blue winter coat. You gave it to him and took a left out of the foyer, into one of the many large sitting rooms on the bottom floor._

_The mansion was decorated in bright Christmas colors. Garland and twinkling lights were wrapped around the stair railings, large decorative ornaments hung from the ceiling, and Amaryllis and Poinsettia flowers were held in large pots spread around the rooms. Everywhere you looked there were wreaths and bows strung up on the walls, and candy canes hung on the fireplaces._

_The sitting room you entered was even brighter than usual thanks to the golden lights tied around the tall green Christmas tree. It stood in the center of the room, skirt beneath it already filled with various color presents. It was significantly less packed than it had been last year, you assumed because of Noah’s death there were simply less gifts to give. Thankfully with the number of presents you’d brought along, that wouldn’t be a problem anymore._

_The butler that had been following behind you set to work putting your gifts beneath the tree, and after a moment a second butler followed his lead with yet more boxes in his arms. The tree was quickly filled with bright, glittering offerings of the season. A few were from your parents, two for Gozaburo and one each for Seto and Mokuba. The rest were from you, although your father had bought them you picked them out by yourself; eleven for Mokuba and thirteen for Seto._

_“Oh my,” you heard a feminine voice lilting from the room behind you, and you turned to see Naho, one of the many maids serving the mansion._

_“Good morning Naho,” you curtsied politely._

_“Good morning to you as well, young miss. I see you’ve brought along quite the bounty.”_

_“As I do every year! Though this time I had two friends to shop for.”_

_“Those are all for young masters Seto and Mokuba then?” She smiled warmly down at you, “If you don’t mind me asking, what did you bring for them?”_

_“Lots of clothes for one, they’re both in desperate need of new wardrobes. I got Mokuba all sorts of card games to entertain himself with, some new colored pencils… oh! And the newest handheld system and a few games.”_

_“My what thoughtful gifts,” Naho smiled, “And what about the elder?”_

_“Let’s see… lots of lovely stationery, I know he says my collection is silly but I’ve noticed him eying my gel pens. Some fancy chocolates my father imported from France, a set of playing cards, and a blue dice set since he likes games so much.”_

_“Ah, I see…” She hummed thoughtfully, her gaze suddenly growing sad._

_“What’s wrong? Do you think they won’t like them?”_

_“Oh no, it’s not that! They’re all lovely gifts, it’s just… oh dear I’m not sure it’s my place to say.”_

_“What?” You pressed._

_“Well, young master Seto is… quite busy with his studies. He’s not allowed any games.”_

_“Really?” You asked wide-eyed, “Not even playing cards or dice?”_

_She shook her head._

_“But I went through all the trouble of bringing them here… I can’t believe he’s not allowed any games, he’s so young.”_

_“I’m sorry young miss. I’m afraid they’ll likely be confiscated from him.”_

_You walked to the tall tree and retrieved the two small boxes that were supposed to be for your best friend, looking over the silver wrapping paper that you had put on all by yourself. You sighed, tucked them away in your bag, and thanked Naho for the warning before excusing yourself to the library. You would need to think up some other gift for Seto, clothes and stationary weren’t very exciting gifts on their own._

_He was already sitting at one of the large tables when you arrived, a stack of books in front of him. One was already open, along with one of his many notebooks, and he was copying a math problem as you set your bag on the table and pulled a chair up to sit beside him._

_“Good morning.” You hummed as you began pulling out your things._

_“Morning,” he replied, briefly glancing up from his textbook to meet your gaze, “You sound upset.”_

_“A little,” you admitted, “Just a problem I need to solve though.”_

_“A homework problem?”_

_“No, a life problem.”_

_He hummed like he was only half-listening. You took your textbooks from one of the bookshelves to your right and set them on the table, opening your notebook and picking up a pencil and beginning on the same page Seto was already on. The two of you worked by yourselves for a while, until your mathematics tutor entered the room and dove into a lecture on derivatives. At times when the problems became somewhat mindless, you thought on what sort of gift you could get Seto to replace the very expensive dice set you had picked out. Other than games, you honestly weren’t sure what he enjoyed. Evidently he was not allowed to have free-time, you wondered if he even had hobbies._

_Had you ever seen him have fun? What had he been doing while he had fun? You hummed in thought as you tried to remember any instance of him amused by anything, though you came up mostly empty. At times when the two of you were hanging out you thought he was at the very least enjoying himself, but you rarely played games together other than chess, and usually you were just sitting around talking._

_Sitting around talking wasn’t really a Christmas present, was it?_

_“A-ha!” You declared, snapping your fingers. Your mathematics tutor was already out of the room, so Seto was the only one to hear your excitement over your epiphany._

_“Why are you shouting?” He sighed, a mix of annoyance and curiosity in his tone._

_“I’ve come up with a solution to my problem.”_

_“Uh-huh....” He had already gone back to his work._

_“I got you this really cool dice set for Christmas but Naho told me you’re not allowed to have toys or games or anything. So I had an idea!”_

_You held up your hand and extended your pinky outward toward him, a grin plastered on your face. He raised an eyebrow to it before glancing back down to his textbook to finish the problem you had interrupted his concentration on and scribbling down an answer. When he looked back up and your pinky was still out he sighed and set his pencil down atop his notebook._

_“What is it?”_

_“It’s a pinky promise, it’s where you--.”_

_“Yeah, I know what a pinky promise is. Are you going to explain what this promise is before I make it?”_

_“Oh yeah,” you had gotten so excited over your genius idea that you forgot to tell him what it was. “So your step-dad can take away your toys and games and stuff but I figure he can’t take me away, right?”_

_Seto looked more confused by your roundabout explanation and tapped a finger on his notebook, prompting you to elaborate._

_“Well your life would be super boring if you had no toys, games, or friends. So I promise to be your best friend forever.”_

_He blinked._

_“I’ll always stay by your side. Even after we grow up and have boring adult jobs.”_

_He stared at your pinky for a while, thinking over your mouthful of words, before he brought up his own hand and contemplated intertwining fingers with you. His sapphire eyes eventually locked with yours as he searched your expression, a hint of suspicion in them that you didn’t quite understand._

_“You know,” he said, “This is a pretty big promise to make.”_

_“How?”_

_“Forever is a long time.”_

_Your grin only widened, “I like you a lot, so forever is fine.”_

_Looking back on it, had you noticed the shade of rose that briefly flashed over his cheeks, perhaps you would have been better prepared for the month to come. Maybe things would have turned out differently._

_“You really promise?”_

_“I really promise,” you nodded and inched your pinky closer to him, “And I never break a promise.”_

_He sighed, more of relief than anything, and finally took your pinky with his. His hand was warmer than you expected, the back of his knuckle rough and raised with a small callous. He seemed reluctant to let go, even after the two of you clearly heard the footsteps coming down the hall toward the library. It wasn’t until the door handle clicked that he jerked his hand away from yours and the two of you continued your studies._


	13. Maybe

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had fun writing this chapter. Certainly more fun that the duel chapter, which is kicking my ass.  
> So much PLANNING

The second duel of the day had been… strange to say the least. It likely would have been even more strange had Isis not already revealed the true identity of her brothers. You had contemplated telling some of the finalists about the fact that the tall cloaked man they thought was Marik was, in fact, not. But eventually you figured the truth would come out sooner than later, and you didn’t really want to draw attention to yourself. Instead you resigned yourself to keeping a watchful eye on Isis’ siblings, just to be sure neither of them had any intention of harming the Kaibas. 

As you had expected, it didn’t take long for Rishiid to be unable to keep up his facade. During their duel, Katsuya Jounouchi had accused him of his fake persona, insisting that he had felt a ‘different presence’ in his mind when he had been controlled. Since Isis had explained to you the abilities of the Millenium Rod, you had a vague timeline of the events the blonde was describing earlier in the tournament. Something something mind control, something something being forced to fight his best friend in a duel. 

It wasn’t long afterward that Rishiid began growing desperate for a way to prove he was Marik, and in a last ditch effort to convince those present on the blimp, he called forth Ra. The most powerful of the God Cards, only those worthy could control his awesome power, etcetera. Seto seemed to be most excited for this part of the duel, in fact he seemed excited for only this part of the duel. You didn’t want to spoil the big plot twist, as Isis had already done for you, so you contented yourself with watching the masquerade play out. 

You had been expecting the card to do nothing, Isis had already predicted the card Rishiid had was a fake, so there was no reason the duel disk should have allowed it to be played. From there the duel took a more violent turn, when the fake God Card caused a volatile lightning storm, one which shattered the replica Millenium Rod Rishiid held and knocked both players unconscious. You didn’t particularly like either of them, but you didn’t much dislike them either, so even you were genuinely worried for their well-being. In fact, it seemed the only person who wasn’t worried was Seto, who insisted that the duel continue for five minutes, until either one of them stood up or they were both disqualified. 

First of all, why was there already a contingency for two simultaneously unconscious players written in his Battle City rules? Second, why didn’t he seem even the least bit concerned for either of the duelists, even if only because it would throw off the brackets for the final round? You hated to admit it to yourself, and you hated even more to see it, but Seto seemed like he’d picked up a few personality traits living under Gozaburo’s roof. You sincerely hoped this was all some facade he was putting on to seem cold and intimidating, but from the look in his eyes you weren’t sure that was the case. 

You were getting a little anxious, and you were positive it was written all over your face. You needed to do something to get rid of the nerves, so you took in a deep breath and tried your best to mask the emotion on your face before clearing your throat. You allowed a mock-impressed whistle to escape your pursed lips, loud enough that it got the attention of the Kaiba brothers beside you. From their faces, they both seemed oblivious to the lingering worry you held for the duelists, and the uncertainty Seto had instilled in you. 

“That must be some fake for your duel disk to read it.” 

Seto shot you a look, “What is that supposed to mean?” 

“Knowing you, you have plenty of anti-cheating measures in these things,” you held up the duel disk around your own wrist, “And your software is state-of-the-art. So whoever made that card must have known what they were doing.” 

Perhaps it was because you were complimenting him in a way, but for once he wasn’t glaring at you.

“If that man is working with the Ghouls, that would probably be why.” He hummed vaguely. 

Mokuba nodded, “It’s not the first fake card that the duel disks have accepted.”

“Oh?” 

The younger Kaiba looked up at you, “In Yuugi’s first duel one of those creeps used phony copies of Exodia. Our system didn’t detect it until a few minutes in.”

“Strange….” You muttered to yourself. 

“What is?” 

“If this group is powerful enough to forge almost perfect replicas of cards… I just wonder why they’re using all their resources on a card game.” 

Ah, there was the glare you were waiting for.

The conversation, and the duel, had ended with Katsuya getting to his feet before time was up, therefore winning a spot in the semi-finals. Rishiid remained unconscious even after the duel platform dropped, causing some sort of chaotic meltdown in the real Marik. Whether he had a bad case of split-personality disorder or he, too, had one of those evil spirits living inside of him you weren’t positive. One thing was for sure, though, the murderous intent he was now radiating was palpable, and it seemed directed at quite literally ever person on the blimp, yourself included.

Wonderful, another lunatic you needed to keep from killing the Kaiba boys. 

Going into the selection of the third duel, you were all but praying to be the one facing Seto. You barely cared about trying to talk to him at that point, you just didn’t want him to be the one to duel the unhinged madman that was the Ishtar boy. You had the utmost confidence in your best friend's deck and dueling skills, absolutely, but with the malice swirling around Marik and his ravings about a shadow duel, you wanted him as far away from Seto as possible. 

By that same token, you wanted him as far away from you as possible. You had enough to worry about already without adding him to the mix. Trying to keep yourself out of a weird God-Card-induced comatose was pretty necessary in order for you to act as a bodyguard for Seto and Mokuba. You had absolutely no interest in taking part in some dark game, regardless of how much of it you did or didn’t believe in. You dueling the lunatic would be preferable to Seto doing it, sure, but you’d rather Kujaku Mai be the one to take that position. 

Speaking of, the blonde haired woman seemed to have had some falling out with Yuugi’s group, or at the very least with Katsuya Jounouchi. It had only been half an hour, what could have possibly happened to put her in such a foul mood?

Regardless, when the bingo machine selected her and Marik to be the third duel of the evening, you were visibly overjoyed. A joy that was cut short as your gaze met sapphire eyes, a sadistic smirk painted on your childhood friend’s face that was so intense you felt yourself involuntarily shiver. There was very little that could freeze you in place like that-- you were a trained assassin and a former human test subject after all-- but that look he gave you… it reminded you of Gozaburo.

You were starting to wonder if you really knew your childhood friend at all anymore. It had been close to six years, sure, and you knew people changed over that long of a time. You had changed in more ways than you could count, both by necessity and through your own free will, but at your core you thought you were at least the same person you’d always been. You’d gotten more jaded, as everyone eventually does, and you were certainly more mature and less confident than you had been as a child. But Seto seemed to have grown so cold he was almost unrecognizable from the boy you had loved. Still love? You didn’t quite know anymore. You had to hold onto the hope that it was, at least somewhat, an act he put on. Playing up the arrogant, apathetic, heartless billionaire prodigy who only seemed interested in his company and a popular card game. Somewhere deep down, he had to still be Seto. Not Seto Kaiba the CEO, but the Seto who adored his little brother and secretly read Tolkien in his spare time and occasionally complimented your sundresses.

With every instance of your eyes meeting thereafter, there was a disdain for you in his eyes, and that sadistic spark you had caught before still hadn’t gone away. He was making no attempt to hide the fact that he intended to obliterate you in your duel, and that hope you were clutching was getting harder and harder to hold onto. You began to fear you were too naive for your own good. 

\-----

When Isis was told what had happened to her brother and what he had done to Kujaku, she was horrified, but unsurprised by his behavior. After her unlikely roommate had told her about Rishiid’s unconscious state, she had expected the darkness in her younger brother’s heart to overtake him. Still, he had spiraled out of control faster than she thought, and she was forced to admit that she had no hope of saving him herself. She would have to put her trust in the great pharaoh, and pray he would have the strength to banish the dark side of him. 

“You should take this,” Isis said. 

Yuugi looked down at the object in his hand, “The Millenium Necklace? But why?”

“It will no longer show me visions of the past or future,” she admitted, “I believe it desires a new owner.” 

Yuugi nodded as if he wasn’t positive what he could do with the gold artifact. Isis assured him he would need it, if not for the trials to come in Battle City, then the trials the nameless pharaoh would face in the future. With that, she made her exit from Yuugi and his group of friends and returned to the room she was sharing with you. She found you sitting in the armchair across from her usual spot, duel disk discarded on the bed and deck laid out in front of you. 

“You took off your mask,” you observed as she sat down and glanced over your cards. 

“Yes, well… I decided there was no reason to keep my identity a secret any longer.” 

You seemed like you had stopped listening. 

“You’re dueling Kaiba then?” Isis asked. She wasn’t entirely sure why she felt the need to speak to you, especially with how disinterested in her you were. Perhaps she was just tired of silence, or maybe talking was helping keep her nerves at bay. 

“Yeah.” 

“You never took a card from my deck when you won our duel.”

You hummed passively. 

“Exchange of Spirit would be quite helpful to you in your duel,” Isis continued, “Kaiba uses a deck that--”

“I know, it’s a deck that sends my best cards to the graveyard,” you interrupted, “And aims to overwhelm me with his most powerful monsters. Trust me I’ve studied him.”

“When I foresaw myself dueling Kaiba in the quarterfinals, my necklace revealed that card to be integral in my victory.” Isis had already reached for her deck and began searching through it to find the card the spoke of, the one she had prepared just for the duel with Kaiba her necklace had predicted. “I… I know my necklace has been wrong, but the visions I saw were still true.” 

“Tell me something,” you began as you tore your gaze from your cards and instead focused on her, “Why do you think I won our duel?”

Isis was puzzled by your question, not because she didn’t understand it but because it was one she hadn’t quite figured out the answer to herself. She blinked slowly at you a few times before returning her attention to finding Exchange of Spirit, in the hopes that shuffling through her cards would give her time to think. She could feel your gaze focused on her the entire time. 

“Perhaps… perhaps I was never meant to win our duel,” Isis admitted, “Perhaps destiny was on your side, and the necklace pointed me to you so you could face Kaiba.”

“But you said your necklace showed you vision of you dueling Seto.” 

She pulled out the card she’d been searching for and set it on the table, before returning her deck to her duel disk. “Then it’s possible your will was strong enough to overcome fate.” 

“Overcome fate, huh?” 

When Isis looked back up at you, you had leaned your head back and were staring up at the ceiling. One of your fingers tapped lightly at the armrest in a melody Isis did not recognize. As if feeling her curiosity, you spoke the words ‘Mozart, Sonata 16’ so softly it was barely audible over the low hum of the blimp’s engine.

“If there’s one person in the world who hates destiny more than I do, it’s Seto,” you finally said. 

“I’m… not sure I follow.” 

“Your necklace showed you a vision of Seto using Crush Card and Virus Cannon on your deck, and you secured victory by turning his own graveyard against him.” 

Isis nodded, though you were not looking. 

“It would be unrealistic of me to think he won’t use those cards on me if he draws them, sure,” you said, “And I have ways to get my best monsters out even if they’re in the grave. But… if you think my will is powerful enough to overcome fate, you shouldn’t underestimate him.” 

“You don’t believe you’ll need this card?” Isis asked. 

“I don’t know. Maybe I will maybe I won’t. And maybe I’m just trying to justify my own selfishness here, but, I want to fight Seto on my own. With the deck I built.”

You were still speaking to the ceiling, so you didn’t see Isis wordlessly pick up the card she’d offered and place it back into her deck. She watched you for a long time, trying to figure out what sort of person you must be, to be so determined to fight Kaiba on your own terms. So determined that you had shoved fate out of the way so you could be the one to duel him. 

“You call him Seto,” Isis said without really thinking.

“Huh?” 

“The elder Kaiba, you use his first name. I’ve never known anyone familiar enough with him to do that. Other than his brother, of course.” 

You hummed, again, like you were only half-listening. 

“How do you know him?” 

“He’s my… we’re childhood friends.”

“You two must be close,” Isis said, though she too had begun to grow disinterested in the conversation. Her thoughts began to wander to her own childhood, and the window seemed a better way to occupy her focus. Out of her peripheral vision she noticed you had gone back to looking over your cards.

“Yeah,” you muttered, quietly enough that the young woman had to strain her ears to hear you, “Maybe we were.”


	14. Tablua Rasa

_  
January eighth, precisely four oh nine._

_There were not many dates you had committed to memory, and especially not very many times, but this one in particular was burned into your mind. The large grandfather clock in Gozaburo Kaiba’s office was one that you had thought to be very pretty as a child, as it was a masterfully crafted marvel of cherry oak and gold filigree. You had watched the second hand tick away on the face of the clock, the metronome beneath it in perfect sync, while you waited politely for Gozaburo to be finished with whatever he was working on. Your hands were folded in front of you, back straight and shoulders back. In your blush pink long-sleeve dress and ribbed white tights, hair braided into a bun with a small flower pin to hold it together, you were the picture of elegance._

_It was precisely four oh nine when Gozaburo swiveled his chair and turned his attention to you._

_“You’ve been getting along quite well with my step-sons, haven’t you?”_

_“Yes sir, very much so.”_

_Gozaburo Kaiba had once expressed to you he did not like when you used more than exactly seven words to respond to him, unless it was a response which absolutely necessitated it. Therefore, you kept reminding yourself to use as few words as possible when he asked you a question. Yes sir, no sir, sorry sir._

_“Tell me something, kid, what do you think you offer in this household?”_

_“I… offer, sir?”_

_“In other words, what purpose do you serve? Why am I still allowing you to spend time in my home?”_

_Gozaburo Kaiba appreciated it when you thought over your words before you said them. He also had a terribly short patience. You had always had trouble finding a balance between the two._

_“Because I’m an excellent study partner for Seto, and I entertain Mokuba so he doesn’t bother you… sir?”_

_“An excellent study partner, you say?” The way he said excellent implied you had use the wrong word. “Why do you believe you’re an excellent study partner?”_

_You furrowed your brow in thought, but apparently your six seconds of pause was too long for him to wait, because he cleared his throat in frustration._

_“Seto is already leagues ahead of you in your studies,” he began, “You’re smart, kid, but you’re no genius.”_

_“Sir--”_

_“Don’t interrupt.”_

_You bit down on your tongue and nodded. There was a short silence that descended over the two of you, and you spent it thinking on how you hated it when he called you a kid. You were thirteen years old, dammit, you deserved more respect._

_“Do you have any idea why I called you in here today?”_

_You shook your head._

_“I know everything that goes on in this city kid, don’t think I’m oblivious to what’s happening in my own home.”_

_He may not have been oblivious, but you sure as hell were. You cocked your head to the side in confusion as you tried to come up with the words to express it, but it seemed your expression was enough for him to realize._

_“Seto has begun focusing more of his attention on you. Attention he would better put to use studying.” He growled, “Seems he’s taken to you. And don’t think I haven’t noticed you’ve taken to him as well. You kids aren’t very good at hiding your emotions.”_

_You could feel a heat creep over your face that you were positive was turning your cheeks pink._

_“I’m not a tyrant, kid. So long as you’re not distracting him from his work I have no problem with you continuing your studies with him. But you’re going to need to make some boundaries with him clear._

_“Make certain you’re keeping any talk outside of studying to a minimum. If your tutors make even a single complaint about you distracting him I’ll have you thrown out of here, clear?”_

_You nodded._

_“Seto is a very forward boy,” his gaze darkened, “If he makes any of his ridiculous feelings known to you, I expect you to turn him down immediately. Is that understood?”_

_You didn’t like how he called your best friend’s feelings ridiculous, but you decided not to comment on it for fear Gozaburo would start yelling. You glanced down at the floor momentarily, before looking up, “Sir I… I’m not comfortable lying to him.”_

_“Get comfortable.”_

_Gozaburo Kaiba was a businessman, he appreciated when people showed him their value. You thought, maybe, all you had to do was convince him you were valuable to the Kaiba family. You swallowed hard, before collecting yourself and starting again, “Sir I may not be on the same level your son is, but I still think I’m quite intelligent for my age. My family is very wealthy thanks to the company, and I like to think I’m growing into a model lady. Perhaps when we’re a bit older it would be beneficial for both our families if Seto and I were...” you paused. You didn’t want to say engaged, it seemed a strong word for a thirteen year old to use. Did arranged marriages even happen in this day and age? What was an appropriate age for betrothal? It wasn’t really a topic you read up on much, your parents never brought it up to you. Still, you’d already come this far in your proposal, what else were you supposed to say?_

_“...I think I’d make an excellent fiance.” You decided upon._

_He didn’t even blink. “I’ve already got someone arranged for him when he comes of age, and trust me kid, she’s from a better family than yours.”_

_You stared at him for a moment, unsure how to respond. The tick tick of the grandfather clock continued on, unphase by the silence in the room. It was now four thirteen, and you couldn’t decide if time felt like it was passing more quickly or slowly than it really was. The poached egg and cinnamon toast you’d had for breakfast was doing a somersault in your stomach._

_“Your father is a model employee.” Gozaburo said suddenly, his eyes looking over some papers on his desk as if he decided you were no longer worth his full attention. “It would be a shame to see him go, but he is disposable.”_

_“W-what?”_

_“His whole life revolves around his family and Kaiba Corporation, doesn’t it? I wonder what job loss would do to that kind of man.”_

_You suddenly felt very cold, and you squeezed your hands together behind your back in an effort to keep yourself focused. First he threatens you, then daddy? You could feel your fingertips trembling at his words as you tried to form the words to response, but when you opened your mouth all that came out was a terrified breath._

_“Let me make myself perfectly clear: if you continue distracting my step-son, or if you try to pursue any sort of silly little relationship with him, I will make absolutely certain you never see him again.”_

_You couldn’t even manage to nod your head before Kogoro Daimon escorted you out of the office.  
_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the length of this chapter, but it's a not exactly a lengthy memory. I promise I'll make up for it with next chapter, which is closing in on 7k words :3  
> If you notice any typos please point them out! And let me know what you thought of the chapter, I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it myself but y'know such is the plight of a writer.


	15. Obelisk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long bois

When it came time for the final duel, you ended up meeting your best friend in the hallway as you were walking out of your room. He barely glanced your way, instead making it a point to focus his attention straight ahead, even after Yuugi’s group of friends joined you two in walking to the elevators. You occupied your thought with an entertaining idea relating to your duel with Seto; more importantly, relating to the reward you’d be getting from the duel.

The whole Egyptian God Card thing was cool and all, but you didn’t have much of a use for it if you were being honest. Your purpose on this blimp was to protect the Kaiba brothers, not split your focus worrying about collecting powerful cards and winning a tournament you didn’t care much about. There was something else though… another reason you wanted to win this duel. Although during the duel Seto would be forced to talk with you, you couldn’t exactly tell him everything you wanted to with a whole group of people watching. It would be a lot easier to talk to him in private. You wondered if Seto was as easy to manipulate as you thought he might be. Well, you supposed it was worth a shot. 

“So what card of mine do you have your eye on?” You asked as innocently as you could.

“I don’t need any of the cards in your pitiful deck,” he snapped haughtily. 

Excellent, you could play the man like a fiddle. 

“Oh, what a surprise.” You hummed, “I don’t want any of your cards either. So what do you say we change the wager of this duel?” 

He raised an eyebrow but his scowl still remained. 

“If I win you have to sit in a room with me alone for two minutes. You don’t get to talk, you just get to listen.” 

“You’d give up the chance at my Egyptian God card just to talk at me for two minutes?” He scoffed, “Why on earth would you be that stupid?” 

“Because I have something important I need to say to you, and you won’t listen to me unless you have to.”

There was a moment of silence over the group as he thought over your words, and up until you got to one of the elevators. Seto pressed the elevator button and after listening to him tap his finger on the metal plate around the button four times, he turned to face you. A sadistic spark entered his eyes in that instant, and though you had no idea what he was planning just his gaze was enough to make your heart lurch in your chest. You felt you’d need to get used to that look, but you couldn’t help the fact that it reminded you so much of his step-father. 

“Fine. I’ll play along with your silly little wager, since I know you’ll never be able to beat me in a duel. And when I win you’ll agree to never speak a word to me again.”

You tried to keep your face as blank as possible, you really did, but it was difficult not to react when your best friend told you he wanted nothing to do with you. And when he saw the fear in your eyes, the satisfied look that came over his face was almost enough to cause your willpower to topple over like a precarious tower of bricks. Yet, now that he confirmed his wishes for you to be out of his life for good, you realized that even if you didn’t go through with the bet he would cut you out. Your only option, your only hope to repair your relationship with him, was winning the duel. 

“Deal.”

\-----

Thanks to Kaiba Corporation’s satellites scanning every single duel disk in Japan, Mokuba would able to watch the duel between you as his brother in real-time from the large screen monitor in front of him. Unfortunately, he wouldn’t be able to hear what the two of you were saying, but he could watch you from the cameras that were hooked up on the top platform of the blimp. He really wished they had installed microphones on the dueling platform, but according to his brother, the wind would be too loud to hear anything else. 

Mokuba didn’t need to do a whole lot with the scan of the Egyptian God Card, at least for the moment, he was mostly waiting for the image to clarify itself on the screen. Until your duel started, he also didn’t have much to do there. So he decided to preoccupy himself with searching through Kaiba Corp.’s old database files that were backed up in the mainframe. His brother said any files that existed on where and why you were sent off to boarding school should exist there. Now he just needed to do some digging. 

He didn’t get very far into his search, by the time he found even one file that would potentially contain background information on you, two windows popped up on the screen. The first was the duel screen, the second a video feed from two different angles of you and his brother cutting each other’s decks. Mokuba cracked his knuckles and minimised the explorer window of files, making himself comfortable in the computer chair. 

He hoped you’d put up enough of a fight that it would entertain his brother, maybe if he had fun dueling you the two of you could get back on track to becoming friends again. Inwardly, he wished both of you luck, but he knew there was no way you could beat his brother’s God card. As he was about to push the thought out of his head, he paused. If his brother did use Obelisk against you, wouldn't you get hurt? Bakura, Mai, and Rishiid were all unconscious, and Jounouchi had passed out from that freak lightning storm. Wouldn't you be in danger if you took a hit from that god card? 

Mokuba desperately hoped it wouldn't come to that. You would probably lose to his Blue Eyes before he even got to summon Obelisk. Still... he couldn't fight the nervous pit in his stomach that something might happen to you. He wanted to hope his brother, deep down, still liked you enough not to intentionally put you in danger. That he still cared about you as a friend. That even if he was mad at you right now, he still cared about you somewhere in the heart Mokuba knew he had. 

"Please let me be worrying over nothing," he sighed into the empty room. 

\--

Isono threw his hands up in the air and announced the final duel of the Battle City semi-finals, you versus Seto Kaiba, and despite the stakes you allowed a smile to crawl onto your face. You certainly hadn’t been expecting to be the one to go up against Seto for a spot in the top-four, but now that you were here there was a surge of excitement in your body. 

“What are you grinning about?” He scoffed. 

“I’ve wanted to duel you since we were kids.” You replied. 

You thought you saw him roll his eyes as he pulled a card from his hand and set it on his duel disk. “You won’t be smiling for long, I’ll show you the difference in our strength. I summon the mighty Battle Ox!”

You mock-whistled, “Oh dear, a cow in armor. I’m quivering.” 

You thought it best not to look at the glare he shot you as you looked over your hand. You could easily get rid of his Battle Ox with a card combination you were currently holding, though you doubted it would stay on the field for long. It was your best course of action though, you had managed to draw both your Wingweaver and Tri-Horn Dragon, which were significantly weighing down your starting hand. 

You summoned one of your Senju of the Thousand Hands to the field, allowing you to search your deck for your prized card, your Ruin, Queen of Oblivion. You added her to your hand, re-shuffled your deck, and equipped your Senju with Black Pendant. You sent it at his Battle Ox, taking him down with a burst of white light and smoke, and his life points dropped by two-hundred. 

You set your Solemn Judgement onto the field, “Your move.” 

He drew his card and raised an eyebrow, as if it were a particularly interesting one. After a moment of thought he set two cards face-down, before summoning forth one of his other iconic monsters, his Vorse Raider. With nineteen-hundred attack points, he was an even match for your Senju. He ended his turn there, and you hummed. One of his face down cards was probably a way to negate your attack, or perhaps buff his Vorse Raider so it was able to overpower your Senju.

You drew your Spirit of the Harp and set it in face-down defense mode, its high defensive stats should protect your life points. You were going to have to find out what plan he had cooked up eventually, so you figured now was as good a time as any. You sent your Senju to attack his Vorse Raider, a move which seemed to bore him. He flipped over his trap, a Ring of Destruction, which began to encircle your Senju’s neck. 

You glanced down at the Solemn Judgement on your field and decided it best to save for later. If you negated his Ring of Destruction you would keep your monster, but take two-thousand points of damage for it.

“Knowing you, I’m sure you have a Ring of Defense prepared for yourself.”

“I see you’ve done your homework.” He hummed and flipped over just the card you had predicted. “Good, you’ll need all the help you can get.” 

The detonation of the Ring of Destruction send a wave of pain through your chest, causing you to lose fourteen hundred life points. You couldn’t help but grit your teeth, taking a deep breath through your nose to avoid crying out. By the time the smoke cleared from your field, you had managed to straighten your back and fight the grimace on your face.

“You’ll take some damage yourself thanks to Black Pendant’s special effect.” you spoke after you regained your composure. 

“I’m aware,” he replied with a frown, though the five-hundred points of damage didn’t seem to phase him. You ended your turn there. 

As it stood, Seto was winning with thirty-three-hundred life points to your twenty-six-hundred. He drew his Pot of Greed and immediately activated it to draw two cards, before sending Vorse Raider to attack your face-down monster, though with only nineteen-hundred attack it was too weak to cut her down. He took one-hundred damage and growled. 

“I hope you don’t think stalling will save you.”

“We’ve got forty cards in our decks,” you shrugged, “It’d be a shame if we didn’t use some of them.”

“It doesn’t matter which of your useless cards you use, the outcome of this duel will be the same.” 

“Rude,” you frowned, “My cards aren’t useless.” 

He brushed you off with a wave of his hand, “Useless people build useless decks.”

“Why are you calling me useless?” You demanded as you drew your Magician of Faith and set it in your hand, deciding on a strategy. 

“I’d thought you were smart enough to know the definition of useless.”

“Oh fuck you, I’ll have you know I’m an extremely useful person,” you said defensively.

The ‘fuck you’ seemed to set him off, “What use could anyone possibly have for a worthless, reprehensible good-for-nothing who can’t even keep a simple child’s promise?”

You blinked at him, hand freezing over the Magician of Faith in your hand. You were seething up until you caught the last few words of his sentence, but once he had finished you were forced to push the anger away to process what he said. Those words explained why, at least to a certain extent, he hated you so much. That stupid ‘Christmas gift’ of a promise you’d made mere weeks before Gozaburo shipped you off to the lab. He probably saw your disappearance as you abandoning him.

“I… I’m sorry.”

You placed your Magician of Faith on your duel disk gingerly and looked back to him. He seemed confounded by your sudden submissiveness, azure eyes locked with yours and brows narrowed as if he were trying to decide if your apology was genuine or not. It was, of course, but knowing him you were pretty sure he wouldn’t believe it.

“You’re sorry?” He scoffed. 

“I’m sorry,” you repeated, “Maybe you were right, maybe it was too big a promise for a kid to make.”

To your right, Yuugi and his group seemed to be trying to figure out what promise you were talking about. You were content keeping your conversation with Seto as vague as possible, they had no business knowing the ins and outs of your childhood. What concerned you more was the way Marik was grinning between the two of you like a madman, a smile that said he was delighting in the anger Seto was hurling your way. 

“Look Seto, I know it doesn’t change anything but… just know I didn’t want to leave.” 

“Oh please,” he began sourly, “I bet you were jumping at the opportunity to be sent abroad.” 

“You can’t seriously think--”

“And I’m sure once you got there you wanted nothing more than to stay.”

“What? You can’t even begin to imagine the abuse I endured while--”

“Abuse? Getting teased by some grade-schoolers at a cushy private school hardly qualifies as abuse.” 

“You-- you honestly think I got sent off to a bording school?” You asked. You weren’t exactly sure how to react to him for a moment, and after a second you noticed one of his eyebrows was barely raised, “You seriously believed what your good-for-nothing stepfather told you?” 

He narrowed his eyes at you, for once with nothing to say, and rather than being upset you felt a wave of astonishment crash over you. You were so dumbfounded by his naivety that you couldn’t fight the fit of hysterical laughter that erupted from your mouth, and you had to clutch the cards in your hand to keep them from blowing away in the wind. 

“I thought… I thought you were just lying for Mokuba’s sake.” You snorted in laughter. God you must have been going insane. From your conversation earlier, you knew Seto had been in the dark about the labs themselves. But you were shocked that the genius, the prodigy that was your best friend, hadn’t bothered to do any research. “I never thought you’d be stupid enough to take that sack of shit at his word.”

It was his turn yet he was making no move to do anything, simply staring at you as you laughed. Somewhere in the back of your mind a voice was insisting you should be taking the conversation a little more seriously, but you couldn’t help it. The only reaction you could muster was one of astonishment.

“No wonder you hate me so much, you have no idea where he…” you trailed off through breathless giggles, not wanting to say anything more considering Yuugi and his group of friends were still watching the duel. You needed to be careful what information you gave away about yourself. 

He seemed to decide it was time to take his turn, and he did so without addressing your last statement. Whether that was because he was simply done with the conversation or he, too, had no interest in sharing his past while others were watching you couldn’t be sure. He set a face-down card along with a low-level monster before sending the duel back to you. 

Oh boy, this was going to be a long one.

\-----

Isis had briefly entertained the idea of coming to the duel platform on the blimp, as she was somewhat interested in seeing how your duel against Kaiba would play out. In the end, however, she decided she just couldn’t handle seeing her brother in his current state. Not while the images of Rishiid lying unconscious on the bed were still burned into her mind. 

Speaking of her adoptive brother, Isis was beginning to get worried about the security on this blimp. If the evil inside of Marik was as strong as she anticipated, she worried he may try to harm the comatosed man. She didn’t think she could quite handle anymore members of her family dying, though she wasn’t sure what she could do about it. Perhaps she could ask you for help, although you probably didn’t have any interest in doing so, and it wasn’t as if you owed her anything. On the contrary, if anything she still owed you for agreeing to bring her to the finals. 

Isis eventually resolved to keep an eye on Rishiid herself. It was about the only thing she could do, now that the Millenium Necklace was no longer in her possession and she was no longer receiving visions. Now she was just an ordinary woman, one with a fancy job title and a dysfunctional family, and even with the power she'd been accumulating over the past few years she still felt so overwhelmingly powerless. 

\-----

Seto was growing increasingly more and more annoyed with your deck, you could see it on his face. When you’d negated his Crush Card Virus with your Solemn Judgement, he’d given an almost impressed scoff and choked it up to luck. When you used your Magic Jammer to stop his Flute of Summoning Dragons, he’d once again insisted stalling would get you nowhere. Now that you had used your Swords of Revealing Light to stop the Blue Eyes White Dragon on his field, you could practically feel the impatience radiating off of him. 

Had you been in his shoes, you would probably be pretty pissed right now as well. Just earlier in the day you remembered complaining about decks which used stall tactics, especially the swords that were currently illuminating the field. But it was about the only way you had any chance of winning against his deck of powerful monsters, especially with how your draws were going at the moment. Your End of the World had to be practically at the bottom of your deck, and without bringing Ruin out there was no way you could face his most powerful monster.

On the last turn of your swords, Seto was blessed with quite possibly the best draw he could have hoped for. He set two cards in his Spell/Trap zone and activated his Card of Demise, followed swiftly by a Silent Doom which he used to revive his Lord of D., before equipping him with a second Flute of Summoning Dragons. Two more Blue Eyes were summoned to the field, staring you down like you were a rat in a maze. From there he ended his turn, as the shimmering swords faded from the field, leaving you completely unprotected. 

Make that his three most powerful monsters.

You sincerely hoped luck was just as kind to you as it had been to all the other duelists on this platform. Glancing over your hand, you had almost everything you needed for the perfect game-winning combo, if you could just draw your ritual card. 

“Hurry it up and make your move,” Seto demanded impatiently. 

“I’m just pausing for dramatic effect,” you assured, simultaneously hoping Lady Luck wouldn’t make you look like a fool.

Oh, luck was good to you alright. Very good. If you played this turn right, this game was yours! You discarded the Tri-Horn Dragon in your hand to activate your ritual card, causing the sky to be blanketed in blue and white runic inscriptions. A bright pillar of light crashed down to the field in front of you, and from it fell a white-haired woman in a black and red gown, her staff pointed directly at the three dragons you faced. 

“Seto, meet the Queen of Oblivion. Queen of Oblivion, Seto.”

He scoffed, “She’s hardly fitting of the title with only twenty-three-hundred attack points.” 

“Don’t judge a book by its cover,” you chided, before you placed two of the last three cards in your hand onto the field, both Cestus’ of Dagla. Her attack rose by one-thousand points, now higher than each of his Blue Eyes. Without hesitation you sent her to attack his first dragon, though his face-down cards worried you, this was your only chance of victory. When he activated neither of them and allowed his dragon to be destroyed, you gained the three-hundred lifepoints he lost thanks to your Cestus’ effect. Now you were ahead on life points. 

“You’ve managed to take down one of my dragons,” Seto said dryly, “But I assure you, next turn you’re finished.” 

“Next turn? There won’t be a next turn, silly. When my Ruin destroys a monster in battle she can attack again!” 

His eyes widened for just a second, long enough for you to feel a satisfied smile creep onto your face. You had a card he didn’t know the full effects of! Served him right for underestimating you. You sent your Queen to attack his second Blue Eyes, fully ready to repeat the process until his life points hit zero. 

Your victory was short-lived, however, as Seto flipped one of his face-down cards to reveal an Interdimensional Matter Transporter, sending his dragon off the field and canceling your attack. 

“Your Queen’s effect isn’t very scary when I can remove my monsters from play.”

The bastard was taunting you. You glanced at the Honest in your hand, even if he did manage to get out his Ultimate Dragon next turn, which you assumed was his master plan, you’d still be able to win this duel. 

“Are you finished yet?” Seto drawled, “End your turn so I can finally crush you.” 

“What’s up with you trying to crush me?” You demanded, “I didn’t do anything!” 

“You’re still trying to claim you’re innocent? What a joke.”

Was he still trying to assert any of this was your fault? It wasn’t like you could have helped being sent to the lab, what did he expect you to do? He was starting to get on your last nerve. It was getting way too difficult trying to be civil when he insisted on ignoring all of your attempts at explanation. 

“Wow you really didn’t do any research on Gozaburo did you?” You taunted. He was going to listen to you one way or another, so help you. “What, after you took over you just wanted to wash your hands clean?” 

“Shut it. You don’t know anything--”

“No, you don’t know anything!” You spat, and Seto seemed taken aback by your instant change in demeanor. Now you were pissed. Why was it that he seemed to be insisting on keeping himself in the dark? What, had his ego grown so big he couldn’t even admit when he was wrong? When he needed to do more research?

He about slammed the button on his duel disk to reveal his Enemy Control spell, and gave up one-thousand of his remaining life points to sacrifice your Ruin, along with the two Blue Eyes on his side. The move left him with a mere two-hundred life points. You watched a swirling ray of light crash down on the three monsters, your prized card dissolving into nothingness. You knew what was coming next, and you had nothing in your hand to stop it. There was an anger bubbling in your chest, and with the realization that you were going to lose this duel sinking in there was nothing holding it back. 

“I’m tired of you living in your own ignorant little world. Ignoring your past won’t make it go away!”

A wind swirled around Seto, making his ostentatious white coat billow wildly around his long legs. It seemed almost unnatural, the way the environment seemed to react to his will, as a brilliant blue beast began rising up behind him. The hologram of the God towered over you, and you instinctively took a step back as you craned your neck up. The maniacal laughter of Marik on the platform below was seriously starting to piss you off. 

You were so focused on Obelisk, you didn’t even notice Mokuba had rushed up the elevator and sprinted to join Yuugi and the others. The wind had been too loud to hear him cry out his brother’s name. You did, however, hear the shouting of Yuugi’s group of friends, though it was such a jumbled mess you didn’t process or understand any of it. At one point you thought you heard Hiroto Honda shouting Mokuba’s name, but you were too busy darting your eyes between Seto and his God card. 

“I haven’t ignored any part of my past!” Seto shouted defiantly over the tempest, “I’ve conquered it, crushed it-- just like I’m going to crush you.” A wicked, sadistic grin spread across his face as he stared you down oppressively with his sapphire eyes. “And what better way to crush you than with the fist of a God?” 

\-----

The second Mokuba came into his vision, Seto Kaiba shouted into the gale for Obelisk to hold his attack. However, it was much too late, the God wouldn’t hear his order. The massive blue fist sailed overhead and rocketed toward his little brother, the bright yellow of his jacket almost completely eclipsed by the size of his monster’s hand. 

It was you who shouted Mokuba’s name first, your voice filled with urgency as you grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him toward you. Seto was unable to process any other movement you made, and in an instant your side of the field was covered in a thick layer of smoke. He looked to Isono, who was staring back at him with mouth wide and eyebrows furrowed in worry. 

“Call it!” He ordered urgently. 

“R-right! The winner of this duel is Mister Seto Kaiba!”

Before half the words had left his mouth Seto was already racing toward the other side of the platform, and though the holograms had shut off and Obelisk had vanished, the cloud of grey smoke still remained. Yuugi and Jounouchi were both climbing up the side of the raised dueling platform, and the rest of his band of dweebs were shouting your and Mokuba’s names in a panic. Isono quickly ran to his side as well, flailing his arms in an attempt to clear the smoke that was already thinning out. 

Your body came into view after a moment, your back facing away from him as you sat on your knees. Your arms were wrapped around his brother, one hand forcing his head into your chest to protect him from the fist that had been sent hurtling toward you. Your fingertips were trembling, and your shoulders were falling in a feverish pattern. Through the silence that had fallen over the group staring down at the two of you, he could hear your breathing had become ragged and disorganized. 

Seto opened his mouth to speak, but before he could form any words your voice cut sharply through the silence. You moved your hands to his brother’s shoulders and pushed him backward so he was forced to look at you. 

“What the hell were you thinking?” You near yelled at Mokuba. 

He blinked up at you twice as he processed your question. 

“You’ve already seen three people injured because of these God cards today. Two of them are unconscious!” Your voice had raised an octave in your hysteria. “You could have gotten seriously hurt!” 

“I--” 

“If I hadn’t pulled you out of the way in time you could be in a comatose right now!”

“But--”

“How do you think Seto would feel if you got hurt because of this duel?”

Mokuba swallowed hard and looked up at Seto, his eyes had become wide in response to your lecture. Seto looked equally startled by your words. Your breathing had gotten even more fragmented, and you were gripping his brothers shoulders hard enough that your knuckles had turned white. He realized one of your ankles was trembling more than the other, and was twisted in an uncomfortable looking position.

“Apologize to him.” 

There was a long pause before Mokuba averted his eyes from both you and his brother, instead focusing on the dueling platform beneath his feet. After a moment he nodded and focused on the worried sapphire eyes staring back at him.

“I’m sorry.” He murmured, grey eyes still holding a hint of fear as the adrenaline began to wear off.

You let out an out-of-breath sigh and let your head drop onto his shoulder, “I don’t know what I would have done if you got hurt.”

“I’m sorry,” he said again, “I just didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

“It’s… it’s alright. I’m just glad you’re okay.”

You released your grip on his brother and placed one hand on the ground to steady yourself, moving your twisted ankle from underneath you and hissing an ‘ow, ow’ as you did so. Your breathing hadn’t gotten any better, and now that you were turned a little Seto realized your brows were furrowed in pain. Even with your hand supporting you, your body was still trembling, and though you made an effort to stand you didn’t seem to have the strength to do more than keep yourself from falling over. 

“Are you alright?” The mutt’s sister asked you with obvious concern in her voice.

“Yeah,” you breathed, “Yeah fine I just need a minute.” 

“I’m surprised you’re still conscious after a direct attack from an Egyptian God,” Yuugi said. 

“Yeah even tha lightnin’ from a fake still knocked me right out,” the dog beside him added.

“I’ve felt worse,” you muttered as you began picking your scattered cards up from the floor, and it was the line that concerned Seto the most though everyone else seemed to take it lightly or ignore it altogether.

“Ya need help gettin’ ta ya room?”

“No,” you groaned as you gripped the railing around the upper platform and pulled yourself into a shaky standing position. The second your eyes met Seto’s you just as quickly looked down at the ground, and a heartbroken look crossed your face.

“Are ya sure? My buddies n’ I can--”

“Please. Just. Stop talking.”

The Geek Squad looked between each other in unease for a moment, before taking it as their cue to hop off the dueling platform and make for the elevator. They lowered their voices as they began talking amidst one another, throwing worried and upset glances toward Seto and his brother. 

“Come on Mokuba, we’re leaving.” Seto said firmly as he turned toward the opposite elevator. 

“But--”

“Now.” 

His brother stared up at him in apprehension as they walked, though he was still too shaken from moments ago to form a coherent sentence. Seto didn’t miss the way you kept your gaze planted firmly on the ground until the elevator doors were shut. Nor did he miss the way you drew what would have been your next card from the top of your deck, before slamming your fist against the metal rail you were supporting yourself on. 

\-----

You were getting really sick and tired of this Millenium Item and God card and ancient Egypt business. Artifacts that gave teenagers weird abilities like mind control and banishing people to the shadows were one thing. Weird tales about thousand-year-old spirits trapped inside of people’s bodies were another. But a few trading cards that were apparently so powerful they were unaffected by your time manipulation abilities? Yeah that was something you really did not want to deal with. 

The second Mokuba had come into your field of vision, shouting at his brother not to attack you, you had ordered everything around you to stop moving. For the most part it had worked, Mokuba, Seto, and every other living soul on the blimp completely froze in place. But titan that was Obelisk hadn’t paused for even a second. Thank goodness you had been able to yank Mokuba out of the way in time, though in your haste you had twisted your ankle in a more than painful way. 

What was more, the pain Obelisk had sent rippling through your body was more any hologram had any right to. Even with the sensations the duel disks created cranked up to max, there was no logical reason for your back to still be searing as you stood alone in the elevator. That giant’s fist had hurt ten times more than any other attack directed at you that game. On top of your momentary exhaustion from using your ability to try to save Mokuba, every fiber of your body was exhausted beyond belief. To say that you were pissed would be an understatement, as you exited the elevator and marched toward your assigned room you were seething. 

“Ishtar,” you demanded as the sliding metal door opened.

Isis snapped her head to look at you, eyes widening momentarily in surprise. 

“Tell me something did your magical fortune telling necklace predict Mokuba running onto the fiend in the middle of my duel--?”

“What?” 

“--Because if you saw any glimpse of him potentially getting hurt and didn’t tell me I swear--”

“No,” she said quickly, “I saw nothing of the sort. Tell me is he alright?” 

“Yeah he’s fine,” you huffed, “Your future powers are crap though.” 

She glanced down at her hands, “I… must admit that I haven’t been given a vision of the future since our duel.”

As you stared at her you realized the choker you had been talking about was completely absent from her neck. When she returned her gaze up to you, her brow furrowed in concern, though for a few minutes she simply stared at you. You decided to ignore her in favor of finding something to eat to stop your trembling hands. 

“You lost to Kaiba, didn’t you?”

Your hand froze on the handle of the mini fridge momentarily as you thought of how to respond, though you eventually decided you didn’t owe her one. You pulled the door open and stared into it in silence, eyes scanning the various snacks and drinks packed inside. One of the juices on the top shelf looked to be high in sugars, and there was a small container of pudding that caught your eye beside it. Not exactly the healthiest meal, but at the moment you really couldn’t give a shit.

“Even from this window I saw Obelisk. You’re still shaking from the attack of an Egyptian God.”

“It was the expected outcome wasn’t it?” You hummed cynically, “He’s been dueling way longer than I have, and he had the power of a God on his side.”

“I apologize for your loss,” Isis said. 

You nodded, more to yourself than anything, and hoped that was all she would say on the matter. You were having a hard enough time facing your loss without her hollow sympathies added on. No, it was more that you were having a hard time facing the wager you had lost, and with it any hope you had of repairing your relationship with Seto. As you pulled a spoon from the silverware container atop the fridge and pulled open your pudding cup, you sighed to yourself. There was a dull throbbing in your chest, unrelated from the fact that your body still ached from Obelisk. 

Seto no longer wanting to speak to you didn’t change your job much, considering most of what you did for him and his brother was from the shadows. You could still keep him alive just fine without communication, you’d been doing a decent job for the past two years. Well, other than the Duelist Kingdom incident, but that was a failure you really didn’t want to dwell on at the moment. 

You popped open the juice can and chugged it in its entirety, not realizing how thirsty you had been. Once it was empty, you swiftly took another from the fridge and set it down next to you, leaning your head against the wall and focusing on one of the corners of the room. You may have been able to do your job just fine without talking to him, but that didn’t mean you wanted to. In fact you really had desperately wanted to repair your friendship, or at the very least explain to him what had happened to you, why you had been forced to leave. You wanted to properly apologize for breaking that childhood promise. You wanted…

You wanted to thank him for saving you from that nightmare. 

A lump caught in your throat and your eyes began to burn faintly. You dug your spoon into your pudding cup more forcefully than you had meant to and heard the plastic bottom crinkle in retaliation. Isis’ head turned just slightly to the sound enough that she was no longer facing the opposite direction. She watched you bite at your lip to keep it from trembling, and for a moment you thought she might offer you more of her unwarranted pity. Why couldn’t you get an ounce of privacy on this damn blimp? Frustrated, you stabbed your spoon into the pudding cup again, though this time the bottom offered less resistance than you’d expected. You felt the head of the spoon pierce through the cup, and a slick splat hit the metal floor. A look of fear briefly crossed her features, as she looked between your eyes and the broken pudding cup before standing from the armchair and muttering something about checking on her brother. She swiftly exited the room, the ruffled white skirt around her ankles flaring up in her haste. 

You glanced down to see that part of the glob had landed on your boot, and with a groan you set down your destroyed pudding cup and reached for a towel. As you bent down and made to clean yourself up, you realized you were having a hard time focusing your vision. You blinked a few times, but it only made things blurrier. You did your best to clean the toe of your boot, which mostly ended in you smearing pudding all over the place, before you tossed the towel away. You clawed at the laces on your boots and began tearing them off, slamming your elbow into the metal wall behind you in your haste. 

“Ow, fuck fuck!” You yelled into the empty room, pulling your elbow into your chest and gripping it with your other hand. “God dammit stupid fucking wall.” 

You felt a tear roll down your cheek and you brought your hand up to swat it away, but it was quickly followed by a second. You began swearing to yourself as you started making to pull your boots off again, this time in a slower but equally fumbled manner. Every time you tried to swallow your saliva just got stuck in your throat, and you couldn’t manage to catch your breath. You licked at your lips only to be greeting by the taste of snot, and you reached up to wipe at it. You managed to coat the hem of your sleeve in two separate smears of snot before you were satisfied it was off your face, though it wasn’t like it really mattered much. You couldn’t sniffle, your sinuses were already clogged with fresh snot, and only being able to breath in hiccuped attempts through your mouth quickly put a strain on your chest. 

You leaned your back against the metal wall and let your legs dropped to the floor, one of your boots still half-laced on your foot. On the other side of the room your ringtone began playing out of one of the side pockets in your backpack, but you couldn’t find the energy or the desire to lift yourself off the floor. You coughed into your palm a few times, trying to dislodge the buildup of saliva from your throat and make breathing a little easier. You tilted your neck to the side and noticed you could see your distorted reflection in the side of the polished refrigerator. Your face was red and blotchy, the bottoms of your eyes had puffed up in irritation, and your cupid’s bow was shiny with fresh snot. The image of yourself trembling on the ground only made you furious, and you quickly turned your face away to bury it in your palms. 

The last time you had cried this hard you had still been in the lab, and it wasn’t a feeling you’d wanted to relive.


	16. 1200 Meters

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skipping backstory chapters for a bit since we'll have plenty of time to dig up painful memories later uwu

At about one in the morning, you still couldn’t sleep at all. You had tried to lay down and rest your eyes at least a little bit, but all you could see behind your eyelids were the flashing memories of your duel with Seto. The fist of Obelisk racing toward you. Mokuba rushing to stand in the way. You had just barely been able to grab him, what would you have done if he had gotten hurt? If you weren’t able to save him? 

You had to keep telling yourself that everything was alright since you had gotten to him in time, you had pulled him back in time. But there was still a nagging voice in your head, insisting that you had almost let him get hurt. What if next time you couldn’t save him?

You threw your fist against the metal wall next to your bed and huffed before rolling your body over and sitting up, letting your feet touch the bare floor. Clouds covered the small windows along the wall next to you, the cool night air blowing by as the blimp trudged on toward Alcatraz. You were surprised to find Isis was not in her usual seat by the window, though you were thankful she wasn’t around to pester you. Now that you thought about it, she hadn’t come back since leaving the room earlier in the evening. You pushed yourself off the bed and sighed, moving to the door and slipping on your boots before heading out of the hallway and toward the elevator. 

You needed some fresh air and some music to distract yourself from your thoughts. You slipped some earbuds in and entered the elevator, willing yourself to forget about all the shit that had happened today, just wanting to focus on your plans for tomorrow. Iris had given your group intel that there was a plan to attack the Kaiba boys on the way to the finals, but no one knew who was organizing the attack or why it was happening.

_‘If I hadn’t pulled you out of the way in time you could be in a comatose right now!’_

The fact that you couldn’t plan for everything was the most frustrating part. When it came to protecting the boys, you wanted to have as much intel as possible, to lower the chance of anything happening to them to zero before you started preparing. But you were in the dark about this one. You’d packed a plethora of knives, lots of protein bars, multiple shots of adrenaline, and a whole lot of pent-up anger, but you were still terrified it wouldn’t be enough. 

_Do you really think you’re strong enough to protect them on your own? You?_

You walked out onto the roof of the blimp and over to the railing at the edge of the platform. You gripped your fingers around the icy cold rail and leaned against it, directing your gaze to the clouds and stars just overhead. It was even colder now than it had been earlier in the evening, but significantly less windy since you weren’t standing up on the dueling platform. 

_You can’t even be responsible for yourself, how do you expect to be responsible for them too?_

At some point, the voices in your head had sort of melded together, to the point that you couldn’t tell whose they were anymore. At a time, they might have been Gozaburo’s, but at some point you had started to believe some of them and they echoed in your skull in your own cadence. Sometimes they rippled so much they began to sound like guards in the lab, other times dropping an octave so it all sounded dangerously close to Seto’s harsh berating. But you had to try to push them away and assure yourself they were wrong. You were very good at your job. Regardless of how ill-prepared you potentially were, it did not matter, you would keep Seto and Mokuba from any danger. You absolutely would. No one would harm a hair on their heads if you had any control over the situation, and you would ensure you had complete control. 

_If anything happens to them, it will be your fault._

“You’re not allowed to be up here when there isn’t a duel going on.”

You paused the music playing in your ear and held your breath when the familiar voice cut through the cold air. You turned your head just enough to see Seto’s tall frame exit the elevator and saunter over to you, long legs carrying him quickly to the railing you were leaning on. You tapped at the metal railing for a moment and nodded before pushing yourself off and making to turn toward the other elevator.

“Wait.”

You bit down on your tongue to keep from speaking, wondering what he was doing up here this late, talking to you of all people. He had made it more than clear that he wanted nothing to do with you ever again. You turned back to face him once more.

“You may speak to me.” He said sharply. 

“Why?” It was about all you could manage in your confusion. After all the things he had said to you earlier, about crushing you, crushing his past, destroying you and removing you from his life, why was he speaking to you?

“I don’t like owing people anything,” he said icily as he crossed his arms and looked down at you, studying your expression, “You protected Mokuba, so I’m merely returning the favor.”

You could only attempt to blink your stupor back. 

“You said you had something you wanted to tell me,” he sighed, “So spit it out and quit wasting my time.” 

You returned to your earlier position leaning on the railing, looked away from his gaze, and back down to the city below you. The towering buildings all looked so small and insignificant from where you were. Street lights twinkled like tiny stars and cars still zoomed down the highway despite the fact that it was approaching two in the morning. Why had you been crying earlier? There were a multitude of reasons: cursing your own weakness, the physical pain and exhaustion from your duel, the fear of isolation and loneliness, but most importantly….

“I wanted to thank you,” you said softly.

He stared at you for a long time, tapping a long index finger on the railing as he thought about what to say in response. The only sound other than the wind blowing through your hair was the rhythmic tap tap tap.

“What could you possibly have to thank me for?”

You breathed out a chuckle. “Saving my life.”

He sighed again, though this time he didn’t sound as annoyed as he had before. You wondered if he was feeling at all sympathetic for trying to put you in the hospital when you had only wanted to thank him. But, probably not. Seto seemed like he’d gotten a lot more jaded over the past six years. You both had. 

“I don’t recall ever saving your life.” He said, stepping closer to lean against the railing himself and stare out to the night sky. You took him getting comfortable to mean he expected you to tell the story. You had not expected that from him, the busiest man in all of Japan, who up until now had apparently hated your guts. 

“You’d probably call me crazy,” you muttered.

“I’ve seen a lot of crazy today.” He merely shrugged you off. 

“Good point. Where to start?” You sighed, “Let’s see… your father was a disgusting human being.”

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he replied sardonically. 

“Alright, your father was a disgusting human being who spent a lot of money on human experimentation.” 

Seto said nothing, but you glanced over at him to watch him raise an eyebrow to your comment, as if it was something he was not aware of. You had expected as much, from the way Mokuba had asked about you being sent to Germany earlier in the day and how oblivious to your past Seto had been during the duel. 

“Do you remember the day you told me you had a crush on me, and I said sorry?” You asked, though you already knew the answer so you did not wait for a response, “Well, before you said that, Gozaburo already knew you liked me. He called me into his office one morning and told me that if you said anything like that, I was to tell you I wasn’t interested. He said a relationship would only distract you from your studies.”

You waved your hand in the air and shrugged, “It was either that or he fire my dad and I’d never get to see you or Mokuba again. So that’s why I lied to you.”

“Lied?” Of all the words for him to latch onto, that had not been the one you anticipated.

“Yeah, lied. Of course I liked you back,” you waved your hand again, dismissively. “Anyway, when the whole ordeal made you even more distracted, Gozaburo decided the best course of action was to send me away. So he told you that I went to boarding school. I assume he probably told you I did it to get away from you or something?”

Seto merely nodded. 

“Well obviously I didn’t go to boarding school. He sent me to a lab in Omachi where the scientists were studying turning people into super-humans, weapons that could be used for war.”

He continued his silence and allowed you to tell your story at your own pace, which was relatively fast. You felt like you were rushing through it, so you rummaged through your brain to think through if there was anything you were missing. But each time you thought back to your days at the lab you felt an anger boiling in your chest.

“He reduced me to a human lab rat, they did experiments on me every day--” 

You stopped yourself before you got too off-track and returned your gaze to the city below you, swallowing the lump that had formed in your throat in an attempt to ground yourself. Your hand gripped at the railing for a moment before you refocused and returned to the story. 

“Anyway, the day you took over the company and shut down the labs, you saved me from being a glorified science experiment for the rest of my life. Or worse, having to take orders, having to manipulate and kill people for him.” You breathed out a shaky breath into the night before softening your voice, “So, thank you.”

Seto said nothing for a very long time, a silence hanging in the frigid air as he absorbed all the information you’d just thrown at him. Honestly, you wouldn’t have been surprised if he didn’t believe you, since you’d just admitted to being the victim of human experimentation, something that only happened in science fiction movies. You wondered, if he didn’t believe you, did that matter? Would you care enough that he believed your story that you’d prove it to him? And do what, have him look up the file you know was kept in the KC database that had the history of all the tests performed on you? Fuck around with time a little to show him the things you could do? You turned your hand over in front of your face and took a sudden interest in your cuticles while you waited for his response. 

“That’s why you came all the way to the quarterfinals? To thank me for that?” He finally muttered. 

You did not want to admit just yet that the real reason was to keep him and the younger Kaiba brother from being killed on their way to Alcatraz, so you decided to keep with the cover story and nodded. You pulled your hand away from your face and turned to look up at him. 

“I’m surprised you believe me.” 

“I’m not sure I do yet,” he said coolly. “But if you are telling the truth, there will be files I can look into.” 

You only nodded, unsurprised by his assessment. He had always been smarter than you, after all, of course he’d know about the files before you even told him about them. The only reason you knew they existed was because James had showed them to you after you got out of the lab. You had wanted to know the purpose of every single test performed on you in your four years of captivity. 

Seto pushed himself off of the railing and turned away from you quickly, headed back toward the elevator he had come up on. You assumed he was going back to whatever he had been working on, and probably to look into all the information you’d just revealed to him. You pushed away from the railing as well and turned your body to watch him call the elevator and step inside. 

“Seto.” 

He pressed the button to hold the doors open and frowned at you impatiently. 

“The videos that are in those files,” you began, breathing in sharply and closing your eyes as the memories flashed before you quickly, briefly. You on the cold metal table. A needle in your arm. Screaming. You shook your head and willed the images out of your mind, before opening your eyes again to stare at the elder Kaiba. He looked like he was about ready to close the doors and ignore you if you took much longer. 

“Don’t let Mokuba see them,” you managed, “I don’t… he shouldn’t have to see something so dark. Seto, they’re not….” You could not find the words you wanted to use to convey how horrific those videos were. Maybe it was just because when you saw them, you were sent back to those moments, all the pain. But hearing yourself scream like that was terrifying, and you did not want the younger Kaiba to see anything like that. Especially not when it was you. You knew you could not stop Seto from watching them if he really wanted to, but at least if Mokuba never knew what really happened in that lab….

You watched a pitied look flash over Seto’s features for the briefest of moments, before his eyes darkened and he furrowed his brow. He barely nodded to you before lifting his finger off the button that was holding the elevator doors open, and disappeared behind them. 

You stayed on the roof of the blimp for a few more minutes to collect yourself, before you got into the same elevator he had and headed down to your own room. On your way you passed by Marik, who had this insane glint in his eye and seemed to be headed up to where you’d just come from. He locked eyes with you, and the smirk on his lips grew into a dangerous, toothy grin. You returned the look with a glare, and picked up your pace to get as far away from his insanity as possible. You were thankful that you would not be involved with whatever crazy stunt he was probably going to pull. You’d had enough of him for one day.

You passed by the computer room Seto was working in and leaned your ear to the door to listen in on whatever was going on. The door was thin enough that if you concentrated, you could hear the faintest sound of his fingers typing away, and you sighed. Satisfied that he, too, would not be getting involved in anything other than work for the night, you finally went to your own room to get some sleep. Tomorrow would be a big day, and you weren’t quite sure what to expect, other than fulfilling your role in the mission and saving the lives of the Kaiba brothers. You could accomplish at least that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just got off a long shift so if I missed anything major in proof-reading please let me know! Hopefully this chapter is up to snuff, we're nearing Virtual World goodness~


	17. The Big Five

In the middle of putting chapstick on your lips in the early morning, the blimp you were temporarily residing on suddenly jolted and threw you off balance, causing you to crash into a nearby wall. You made an annoyed groan, accompanied a confused huff originating from Isis. You pushed yourself off the wall with your free hand and capped your chapstick, quickly making your way to the other side of the small room on unsteady feet to get to your change of clothes. 

Isis had stood up from the chair next to the window and was looking around bewildered, trying to keep herself steady by pressing her hands against the metal wall to her right. It was the first time you’d seen her look so unsure of anything, and she reached up with one hand to touch her neck only to remember her golden necklace was no longer there. Outside you could hear footsteps rushing toward the front of the blimp, probably going to demand what was going on from the Kaiba boys. 

“It’s too early for this shit,” you muttered beneath your breath.

You pulled your black jeans on and put on a pair of socks before a second rocking of the blimp hit, though this time you were more prepared for it and didn’t almost fall over. You tugged on your black boots before you tore through your bag to find each of the knives you had packed, slipping your KA-BAR into the waist of your jeans, a boot knife into each of your boots, and tucking your smallest folding knife into your bra. Isis had taken to watching you stow away each of the knives intently, but she said nothing about the act.

You pulled on the long sleeve t-shirt you had packed and slung your bag over your shoulder. As you exited your room the metal door automatically closed behind you with a click, and you calmly made your way to the cockpit. As you were about halfway through the hallway the blimp lurched forward, dropping altitude rapidly. You leaned against the wall and muttered a few curses as it hit the water, causing you to drop to one knee to keep from completely falling over. By the time the blimp balanced itself out, you could hear voices drifting from the cockpit. You picked yourself back up and continued toward the open glass room, but stopped just outside of the doorway when you saw a young boy on the screen addressing everyone in the room.

“Noah…?” you breathed to yourself. 

He looked exactly like Noah Kaiba, but that was impossible. Gozaburo told you Noah had died just before he adopted Seto. But that was clearly Noah on the screen, looking like he hadn’t aged a day since when you last saw him. 

“Answer me!” Seto’s demanding voice ripped through your thoughts, “Who are you?”

“My name is Noah. And I’ve greatly surpassed you, Seto.”

No, this was absolutely impossible. You had been at Noah’s wake, you remember because you had been told explicitly not to cry. But, then again, Gozaburo had sent you to a secret military facility while telling everyone you’d been sent to boarding school, so if anyone could have somehow pulled off keeping Noah alive, it would have been him.

“You brat… quit fucking around.” Seto seethed. You watched his fingers curl into fists at his side, a motion which made little Mokuba look a little uncomfortable.

“Well then, I’m inviting all of you to come to me.”

The screen clicked off and Noah’s face disappeared from sight. You stepped inside of the room with everyone else and let out a shaky breath, attempting to make sense of why your dead childhood friend was just on screen in front of you, the same as he’d looked over six years ago. As you tried to sort out your thoughts, you were distracted by the television screen blinking on again, showing the view of a giant metal fortress erecting itself out of the sea just beneath the blimp. 

“It’s huge,” Jounouchi said. Everyone else seemed equally shocked. 

As the group of teenagers talked rapidly amongst themselves, you stepped closer to the wall behind you and pressed your back against it, making it a point to keep out of the conversation. Jounouchi had taken to yelling at Seto, demanding to know what was going on and how he was going to fix it. Seto responded by ignoring him completely, brow knit furiously at the screen where Noah’s face had once resided. Mokuba had glanced back long enough to notice you had entered the room, but as he opened his mouth to speak, the blimp made a sharp lurch downward, and began to descend inside of the metal prison, sinking deeper and deeper into the darkness it held. 

“Do something!” Mokuba whipped his head back around and shouted at Fuguta.

“I can’t, we’ve lost all control!” He replied in a panic, causing the other passengers to talk even more frantically amongst themselves. You glanced to Seto to try and figure out if he had some sort of plan, but his face was flush with anger at the fact that he could not control the situation. You tapped the side of your boot on the wall to ensure your boot knife had not moved in all the shaking, and bit at the inside of your cheek to think about your next move. Never would you have imagined Noah Kaiba, of all people, would be the one to target Seto and Mokuba. 

The blimp finally landed in pure blackness, large metal arms raised to keep it from flying away, before giant spotlights turned on and flooded the room with nauseatingly bright light. After a moment, Noah’s face returned to the screen and ordered Seto and all the other duelists to disembark the blimp. You swallowed hard and stared at his face, but he was so focused on Seto he didn’t notice you at all. Then again, he hadn’t seen you in six years, so it wouldn’t have surprised you if he didn’t recognize you. 

“What if I say no?” Seto challenged his order, and your eyes flickered between the two boys as you moved your hand to your back to rest on the hilt of the KA-BAR tucked away in your waistband. 

“You’re already in my clutches,” Noah replied coolly, and you again confirmed from the sound of his voice that he was, undoubtedly, the same Noah Kaiba from your childhood. “You don’t have a choice.”

A row of turret guns appeared on either side of the blimp, affixed to the wall and presumably loaded. Their presence was enough to make everyone sans you and Seto jump back a little in fear. Admittedly, you were surprised by Seto’s calm act, considering the position he was in. He scoffed, then turned and began to exit the cockpit, ordering everyone else, including Mokuba, to stay inside. You turned your body a little to face him, ready to follow him if he was really planning to go alone. 

The turrets began shooting out what you thought may have been rubber bullets at the floor beneath the blimp, this time causing everyone, even Seto, to brace themselves and panic a little. You instinctively moved yourself closer to the Kaiba boys to shield them if necessary, but the bullets eventually stopped and Noah’s voice rang through the blimp again. 

“I believe I said ‘including all the other duelists’, didn’t I?” 

You frowned at his words and your mind began to race, trying to figure out what his motives were and who else was on this metal fortress with him. There was no way he was acting alone, not on this big of a scale. You recognized Noah Kaiba could be brilliant, but you had always been smarter than him, and even you could not pull off a stunt like this backed by all Tokyo, Warsaw, and New York’s resources put together. At least, not so quietly.

The nine of you made to disembark the ship together, leaving Fuguta and Isono, along with Marik, Isis, and the three incapacitated passengers behind. You glanced backward to see Isis watching you through the window, and you cast her a sort of mock salute. You and Mokuba followed behind Seto closely, you keeping your hand close enough to your knife that you could reach it easily without drawing suspicion. Mokuba’s eyes kept darting between the back of his brother and your face, and he had clasped his hands together to keep them from shaking. Poor kid looked terrified.

“What are you going to do to us?” Yugi demanded as you all walked through the small metal hallway.

“Actually there are some people who have been waiting a long time to see you. They’ll explain your situation.” Came young Noah’s voice from a crackling loudspeaker.

You entered a dark metal room, walls and floor decorated in a circuit board pattern, and immediately the members of Yugi’s possy demanded answers. Your eyes flashed around, quickly absorbing everything you could about your surroundings. 

Suddenly, a bright white light flooded the room, and you had to put your hand in front of your eyes to shield them. The silhouettes of five men stood out before you, lit against the light. After a moment, your eyes adjusted to the light and you could make out the suits they were wearing and the devilish grins on each of their faces. 

“No way,” Seto said with a surprised look, “You people are The Big Five!” 

Well now this was a complete blast from the past. Other than Daimon, who often shadowed Gozaburo on his trips to the lab, the last time you’d seen rest of the top five Kaiba Corporation executives was as the final company Christmas party you’d attended with your father, about a month before Gozaburo sent you away. You’d never liked any of them, but they worked closely with your father so you had to put on a smile every time they were around. You said nothing as Yugi and Mokuba explained to Ryuuji who they were, and told a story of how they’d made an impromptu trip to Cyberspace to rescue the elder Kaiba. 

As the Big Five spun the tale of how they’d ended up back in front of you all, you watched Seto’s body tense in anger, even further when he found out Noah had been the one to bring them before him. You pulled your phone out from your back pocket and texted an order for Doll to look into the Big Five, and what had happened to Noah after the accident, but received a message that your service was suddenly being denied. Of course they’d be blocking cell signals. 

“We’re inviting you into our duel world,” Oshita declared, and another bright flash of light appeared in the room, temporarily blinding you and the rest of the group. In an instant, the nine of you found yourselves inside of a new world, something out of a dinosaur movie. You picked yourself up off the ground you had fallen onto before helping Mokuba up next to you, looking around the jungle that had appeared before you. 

“It’s a virtual world,” Seto clarified to the rest of you, already on his feet. As everyone else debated which parts of this world were really real or not, from the smell to the air on your faces, the rendering of a giant dinosaur came into view over the trees. Immediately, everyone other than Seto ran back to put distance between themselves and the tyrannosaurus rex. You positioned yourself in front of Mokuba, eyes locked on Seto’s back, trying to figure out if he was cocky or just stupid. 

“ _Nii-sama_!” Mokuba cried as the dinosaur raised its mighty claw and poised itself to cut down his brother. 

“Mokuba stay back,” you ordered, putting your arm in front of him to stop him from walking forward. You sighed in relief when the claw merely passed through Seto, as did everyone else behind you.

“They think they can scare me when they can’t even recreate the sensation of touch? This is just a cheap copy of my Solid Vision.” Seto said haughtily. The moment he finished speaking, Anzu made a loud, confused cry, and you all turned your attention to a copy of him dressed in a blue trench coat, with the same icy stare at his real counterpart. 

Above your heads, flowing throughout the air of the virtual world, came the voices of the Big Five explaining the rules of a Deck Master. You all watched the Seto Kaiba copy summon a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon, then order an attack on the Total-Defense Shogun in front of him, which was redirected and resulted in the defeat of the copy. You tried to absorb the information thrown at you, about Deck Masters and the new dueling rules, while at the same time trying to figure out how to keep the Kaiba boys from getting hurt in this new world. 

Suddenly, the scenery around you began to waver and pixilate, the sounds of the jungle fading away until you were all back in the bright white room, standing in front of the Big Five.

“Well then? Will you duel us?” Oka asked patronizingly, “It’s the only way to escape this world.”

“That doesn’t leave us any choice!” Mokuba cried, balling his hands into fists.

“Alright! I’ll accept!” Katsuya Jounouchi yelled from behind you, and you couldn’t help but roll your eyes at his decision before you had all the facts. He was going to get you all killed. Very quickly following his idiotic words, everyone else in Yugi’s group agreed they had no choice and would duel.

“Wait a second, what happens if we lose?” Anzu asked.

Finally, someone was asking a smart question. You crossed your arms over your chest and stared down the Big Five. Now that you’d heard their motives for wanting to duel the group of teens, you could understand. But you still couldn’t figure out how Noah fit into all of this, or why he wanted so badly to target Seto, especially since the two had never met. 

“If you lose, our minds in the cyber world will take over your physical bodies,” Ota said.

“We’ll switch places with you and you’ll wander this cyberspace for all eternity!” Oshita clarified excitedly. The five of their bodies grew and distorted, towering over you as the cackled at your shocked faces. 

“This is ridiculous,” you huffed and turned your attention to Seto, “Can they actually do that?”

“Hypothetically if they could shock our brains into--”

“I’ll do it,” Katsuya interrupted, “I’ll be your first opponent!” 

“Idiot.” Seto muttered, barely loud enough for you to hear.

Just as the words left his mouth, a bright light appeared underneath the spunky blonde boy, then disappeared to leave a gaping hole in the floor. He plummeted into the darkness, leaving his younger sister behind. 

“Your friend’s speech earlier means you’ve all consented.” Oshita grinned. 

“I knew his big mouth would get us into trouble,” you sighed, looking behind you just as a hole opened beneath Anzu’s platform sandals. She, too, fell into the endless darkness below her. Next fell Shizuka, quickly joined by Honda and Ryuuji as the hole expanded. The various members of Yugi’s group dropped like flies, and just as you turned to look back at the Kaiba boys, a hole opened beneath Seto’s feet. 

“ _Nii-sama_!” Mokuba shouted, racing toward his brother. 

“Mokuba stop!” You ran after him, reaching for his collar as the hole expanded large enough for the three of you, dropping you and leaving Yugi alone with The Big Five. 

Mokuba clutched onto his elder brother, then looked up at you as you fell just above them. He let out a panicked whimper, and you tried to give him a reassuring look, but truthfully you were about as worried as he was. 

“ _Nii-sama_ , I’m scared!”

“How dare you do this to us,” Seto spat, keeping a hand on his brother’s back.

You watched the distorted walls around you begin to separate, and looked down at your hand to see them begin to falter and the colors split apart. You couldn’t feel anything, but somehow you though you should have. Below you, the same was happening to Seto and Mokuba, red and blue outlines of their bodies splitting off into different directions as you fell through the endless nothingness, completely at the whim of The Big Five. This was not at all what you had expected when you’d gotten intel of a plot to kill the Kaibas, you were thinking more of an assassination or a bomb on Alcatraz. Not your childhood friend and the top Kaiba Corp business executives dropping you all into a virtual world. 

You reached to your back to feel if your knife was still there. But as your fingers reached your back, you were surprised that you felt nothing. The sensation of touch was completely gone. You blinked around you, around the distorted sea of colors and non-shapes, unable to feel the air that had been whipping at your body. Unable to hear the panicked whimpers of Mokuba below you. Unable to even make out the bodies of the Kaibas. 

Then everything went black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> V I R T U A L W O R L D B O Y S


	18. Empathy Machine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It begins.

When Seto Kaiba finally opened his eyes he was lying on his back, wefts of dewy grass crushed between his clenched fingers. The blue sky that greeted him was painted with wisps of white clouds, moving slowly across their canvas in the breeze he could just barely feel. He tilted his head back at the sound of movement behind him, to find you already sitting up and gently tilting his brother’s head side-to-side. It seemed Mokuba had not yet awoken. 

“What are you doing?”

“Making sure he didn’t hit his head.” You kept your gaze focused on his brother, lightly combing your fingers through his hair and feeling around for something. One you were seemingly satisfied, you set him back down in the grass and stood, offering your hand to Seto. He stared at it for a moment, before waving it away with his own and pushing himself off the ground. 

“Well?” He pressed. 

“His vitals are fine, no bumps anywhere. He’s just not conscious yet.” You looked over him, brow furrowed, before your eyes met his. “What about you?” 

“I’m fine, to my knowledge.”

You didn’t seem convinced by his response. 

“We should probably check each other’s heads and backs just in case.” 

Seto thought you were being a bit paranoid, but considering the circumstances it wasn’t that bad of an idea. Other than the vague threats and insistence on stealing your bodies, none of you were exactly sure what this construct of a virtual world had in store. It was logical to check for damage after what felt to him like a decent fall from the sky.

He nodded at your proposal, though you were already walking toward him. Your hands flew up to clutch at the collar of his coat, and you pulled it off his shoulders. You’d gotten it past his elbows before he registered what exactly you were doing, and he brought his arms up to grab your wrists. 

Other than your uncharacteristically alarmed state of mind, there were two thoughts currently racing through his head. The first was that he had absolutely no desire to strip in front of you, though not out of a sense of modesty or something so trivial. Rather, he didn’t want you asking any unnecessary questions about the state of his back, if that’s really where you intended on checking him for injury. 

The second was a counterargument. He’d gone through bits and pieces of your file last night, and had a decent understanding of the scope of your abilities. To stop time around you and do whatever you wanted without anyone knowing what had happened. If you were truly this worried about possible injury to him, he was curious if you would check him without his knowledge using your ability. Just going off your personality and desire to make him happy, he doubted it. But then again, he didn’t really know you very well anymore did he?

There was, he figured, less than a ten percent chance that you tried to discuss his back. He would at least give you the credit that you were mature enough to keep your mouth shut. Probably. Thinking back, when he had still been a child you had figured out the torment Gozaburo inflicted on him behind the scenes. He doubted you’d be surprised by what you saw.

Ultimately he decided it was better to allow you to get this hysteria out of your system, especially before Mokuba woke up and it became a whole ordeal. 

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“Checking to make sure you’re not injured.” 

“I understand that, why are you stripping me?” 

“It’s hard to tell if you’re hurt through your clothes.” 

Now he was just getting annoyed. 

“Why are _you_ stripping me?” 

At that you paused, blinking up at him a few times before you flushed a shade of scarlet he’d never seen on you before. Through the tight grip on your wrists, he realized how quickly your pulse was racing. 

“Sorry,” you finally sighed, “Force of habit.” 

“Stripping men?” Seto hummed saucily. He released his hands from your wrist and pulled his coat off himself before draping it over your shoulder.

“What--? No!” At that you looked mortified. “Panicking over your well-being-- what exactly do you think I do for work?”

It had been a joke, one that caused more of a reaction from you than he expected, but a joke nonetheless. Still, your question offered him an excellent segway into getting some information out of you without directly asking for it. He reached for the hem of his shirt, untucking it from his pants reluctantly before pulling it over his head and repeating the same motion he had with his coat. You didn’t seem to mind being used as a coat rack.

“I read over the ‘curriculum’ they had at the laboratory, if you can even call it that. Seduction was something taught to most of the,” he paused while he searched for a word that would not offend you, “...patients.”

It seemed you hadn’t caught on to his pressing for information. Perhaps it was manipulative, but Seto had never really been a virtuous character had he?

“I was required to attend a few of the classes, we all were,” you began, though your focus was already on his chest as you scanned him for injury. The blush had already drained from your cheeks and you were, it seemed, back to normal. “But they had other focuses for me. Seduction was more for long-term missions, and soldiers with abilities better suited for things like espionage and infiltration. I was made for more… get in get out sort of missions.” 

He noticed the uncomfortable way you said ‘get in get out’, like you were using the term as a replacement for other words that had come to mind. He also noticed the way you referred to those in the lab as soldiers, and made a mental note to use that from now on. 

“Doll had to learn more about that kind of stuff I did. Seduction, networking, diplomacy,” you continued without being pressed. “I had a more combat and stealth focused-- what did you call it? Curriculum?”

“Doll?” 

“She was my cellmate. Still is. Er, well, I suppose she’s a housemate now since we’re not in a cell anymore.” 

At the mention of your house he had the urge to ask you where you were living now, if you were in Domino or not. And, if so, why hadn’t you tried to make contact with him before Battle City? But, he didn’t want to appear too interested in you, and thought it was best to pick up bits of information you freely shared before he decided what exactly you meant to him, if anything at all. Instead he did not offer a response, partially because he didn’t have anything in particular to say and partially because you had begun circling around his body to look at his back. 

He hadn’t been expecting your reaction to the scars, or rather, your lack of reaction. He had already predicted you’d be smart enough not to say anything, but he anticipated you would acknowledge them in some way. Instead your eyes wandered his back like you didn’t see them at all, or you saw them and weren’t in the least bit surprised. Seto was curious about your expressionless face, but not curious enough that he would willingly bring the conversation up, so he instead turned his head away from you. 

He glanced over at Mokuba, still lying in the grass, chest rising and falling in an even pattern. He was about to ask if you were satisfied with your examination when he felt a fingertip brush at the back of his neck. He immediately tensed from the feeling, and snapped his head back to look at you. 

“Sorry, did that hurt?” You asked, finger still raised innocently in the air at the spot where his neck had just been. 

“Warn me before you touch me,” he snapped. 

You nodded, though you seemed like you weren’t completely listening. Instead you spun around and lifted your hair from your neck. 

“Do I have one too?”

“One what?” He huffed. 

“A sort of… weird shaped indent?” 

He was still, frankly, annoyed that you had touched him without his permission and acted like you’d done nothing wrong. But you were acting strange in general, and if you had actually found something on him he wanted to know what it was. He swallowed the insults he was going to throw your way and sighed, before turning his body around fully to look over your neck. 

There was a large indent, or rather a raised area surrounded by indentation, across the entire back of your neck. It was in a shape that seemed somewhat familiar to him although at the moment he couldn’t recall where he’d seen it. Two lines running parallel to each other, ending in a sort of oval on either side. As he stared at it, the size made him think of a pattern that might form from the gap between a chair and a head rest.

You were still standing perfectly still the entire time, waiting patiently for him to say something about your neck, or perhaps allowing him to take his time analysing it. After a moment, a thought crossed his mind, and a voice somewhere in the back of his mind chided him for being childish. 

Payback. 

He ran the tip of his index finger along the back of your neck just as you had done to him, and almost immediately you jerked away from him. 

“Haa-- Seto!” You yelped. 

“Startling, isn’t it?” He couldn’t fight the smirk that had crept onto his face, “Although you had more of a reaction than I anticipated.” 

“I have a sensitive nape,” you frowned defensively at him. 

He decided that was important information he should save for later. 

Since you seemed satisfied with the current state of his body, he plucked his shirt from you and pulled it on, doing the same with his coat, and adjusting himself so he was once again in pristine condition. Momentarily he wondered if he should offer to check you for injury, but after watching you walk back to Mokuba to try shaking him awake again he decided against it. About three minutes later, his little brother finally woke and stood up from the ground with your assistance. As you’d already confirmed, he seemed perfectly fine. 

Now that that was all sorted, Seto could focus on the pressing matters at hand: who the hell was Noah, what did he want with them, and how could he find an exit as quickly as possibly to get on with his tournament? 

\-----

You ended up wandering through a dense forest with the Kaiba brothers. There had been a well-walked trail you’d followed for a while, but after getting nowhere Seto had demanded you all take the path less traveled. There wasn’t much of note, the woods were surprisingly well lit for how populated it was, though you figured that was because the world was virtual. The sounds of the forest were prevalent all around you, from the leaves rustling in the breeze to the white noise of summer cicadas. Birds chittered in the treetops and small wildlife occasionally crossed your path. 

The three of you walked side by side when the path was wide enough to accomodate, and you walked in front of the boys when it wasn’t. Seto neither commented on nor argued with your leading the way, even though you’d expected him to. 

“What’s that?” Mokuba asked, finger pointed a little ways to the right where the wooded path lead. Criss-crossed between the tree trunks on either side was a thicket of vines, covered in clusters of small sky blue flowers cascading downward. 

“Wisteria flowers,” you replied before Seto had a chance to. He raised an eyebrow to you, and you shrugged. “They were Professor Yasuko’s favorites, remember? She told us that story about the--”

“The fox who gave birth beneath the vines on her house, yes I recall.”

The two of you exchanged a look, one that filled you with a strange warmth and made a breath catch in your throat, if only for a moment. Now that he wasn’t constantly glaring at you or focusing sadistic stares your way, you once again felt the fluttering in your chest you’d experienced as a child. His deep azure eyes fixated on you, the way his eyebrows were always just slightly knit, the way his--

“So, what are these vines doing here?” Mokuba’s voice broke through your thoughts. 

“Impeding our progress, it would seem.” Seto muttered, turning his head to focus his gaze on the wisteria. You exhaled the breath you hadn’t realized you were holding in and followed his lead, observing the thickness of the vine trunks. 

“So what, we have to turn back?” Mokuba asked. 

Seto took a few steps forward and reached out a hand to grasp one of the vines, tugging at it a few times to test its strength. “So it would seem.” 

“Maybe not,” you hummed. 

Mokuba had also followed his brother’s lead and was grasping at a few of the vines, using all of his might to try pulling at them. After a few grunts of frustration and tugging as hard as possible, he sighed and let go of them 

“I don’t think these are gonna budge.” 

“I might be able to cut them.” You reached behind you into your waistband, prying the handle of your knife out with mild effort. You gripped it firmly with one hand and used the other to remove its sheath, though as you did so Mokuba near jumped in the air. 

“Woah! Why do you have that?”

You glanced down at the KA-BAR in your hand, “I’m not sure, I wasn’t expecting it to follow me into the virtual world actu--”

“Wait! You had that on you in real life?” 

You nodded. 

Seto cleared his throat, “You brought a combat knife onto my blimp?”

“No, no don’t be silly. I brought four.”

Neither of the boys said anything, Mokuba because he seemed completely baffled by the situation and Seto because… well because he looked like he was calculating something. You wanted to ask, but figured you’d find out what it was later anyway. You stepped in between them and asked Mokuba to stand back a little, before raising your knife up and swiftly bringing it down on one of the vines. It cut about halfway through the stock, and after a second swing came apart with ease. One down, about thirty to go. Seto and Mokuba watched you chop at vines for a solid ten minutes, before they seemed to get bored and wandered off to another part of the forest. They stayed within sight, so you didn’t worry too much about them. 

It took a while, but you eventually managed to cut through the final wisteria vine blocking the path between the trees. You called behind you for the boys as you sheathed your knife and slipped it back into your waistband. It was a moment before the two wandered over to you, and you all peered through the trees. It was Mokuba who lead the way this time, pushing between both you and his brother to begin walking quickly down the path, excited to find an exit. The two of you followed after him. 

“You’re sweating,” Seto muttered, low enough that Mokuba wouldn’t be able to hear him. 

“You wanna try cutting down thirty-three vines next time?” 

“You counted?”

You snorted a laugh, “Wasn’t much else to do.”

He ignored the comment and returned his attention to his brother, picking up his pace a bit to catch up to him, and you followed suit. It only took him a few strides to reach is brother’s side with how ridiculously long his legs had gotten, and you had to jog a bit to reach Mokuba’s heels. When had he gotten so much taller than you, again?

“Hey what’s that?” Mokuba called, pointing up ahead and taking off in a run, “It looks like a way out! Come on guys!”

“Mokuba, slow down!” Seto called after him. 

“It’s probably an emergency exit to the real world,” Mokuba said excitedly, pausing in front of what looked to be a fancily carved wooden door when Seto shouted for him to stop. The two of you reached the younger’s side and took a moment to examine the door, before Seto reached for the door handle. 

You placed a hand at your back to grip at your knife again, just in case anything unsavory popped out of the door. Your other hand was hovering in front of Mokuba’s chest in an effort to keep him from running off again. From the door poured a brilliant bright light, one that you had to squint against. 

“Wait a second…” Mokuba muttered, “Isn’t that…?” 

“What?” You asked. 

He looked up at you with a frown, “It’s the orphanage we grew up in. Who knew it still existed?” 

“It’s obviously a trick,” Seto about spat, “Just some cheap virtual illusion like everything else in here.”

You removed your hand from the knife at your back and sighed, scanning the area inside of the doorway. Behind a tall metal fence stood what looked like a school building, with white walls and red roofing. It looked to be in decent shape, although the playground outside of it seemed like it hadn’t been updated or repaired in years, the metal of the swing set a dull, rusted copper.

“What I want to know,” the elder spoke again, “Is how exactly Noah found out we used to live here.” 

The three of you took a few cautious steps into the doorway, examining your surroundings carefully. Mokuba began muttering about how he’d never wanted to see this place again, and Seto assured him, once again, that the building was just an illusion. His words didn’t seem to have the intended effect, and when Mokuba turned his face to glance up at you the hurt in his eyes made your chest ache. You placed a hand on his shoulder and offered it a squeeze.

“It still brings back bad memories.” He muttered defeatedly. 

“Why did you two--?” You began to ask, before cutting yourself off as you realized it was a completely inappropriate question to ask. Seto shot you a glare, and you shook your head, “Sorry.”

The three of you began walking forward through the metal gate in front of the orphanage, which had opened up as if inviting you all inside. You kept your hand on Mokuba’s shoulder, partially in an attempt to lift his spirits and partially to keep him close to you. 

“Welcome, boys.” Came a low voice from behind you. The three of you froze in place, simultaneously turning your heads to find the source of the noise. You stared between the young forms of Seto and Mokuba, both looking even smaller than they had when you’d first met them. The two stood at the gate next to two men in suits, each with only one small bag to their name. You opened your mouth to say something, but for the life of you couldn’t form any coherent sentence to properly express how sorry you were. You felt like you shouldn’t have been seeing this, that you were probably intruding on their lives even more than you already had. 

“Seto… what’s going on?” Mokuba asked cautiously. 

“Somehow,” the elder huffed, “Noah must have tapped into out memories so he could replay events from our past.” 

“That’s right! I hope you’ll all enjoy the trip down memory lane.” A familiar laugh echoed around the three of you, who each darted your heads around in an attempt to find the source. You hadn’t noticed, but your grip had tightened on Mokuba’s shoulder in worry, and at one point Seto’s eyes met yours with a frustration you could only imagine. 

You should have been focused on the Kaiba brothers and the pain they must have been going through at the sight of their memories playing out. But you were all too distracted by what Seto had said. Noah was tapping into their memories, putting them on display. He could show them to anyone in this virtual world. Your stomach began to knot at the realization that, if he could parade around Seto and Mokuba’s painful memories, he could do the same to yours.


	19. Inconvenient Facts

Watching the plethora of Seto and Mokuba’s memories flow by slowly was making you more than a little uncomfortable. You felt like you were intruding on something you shouldn’t have been, and with the way both brothers were making it a point not to look at you, you were sure they felt much the same way. You took to chewing at the inside of your cheek and staring at a fixed point on the ground, a patch of grass that seemed to have been dug at by either a small child or an animal. 

Your phone buzzed in your back pocket, and you furrowed your brow in confusion. You were in a virtual world, you shouldn’t have been getting cell service here. You reached behind you to dig the phone from your pocket, unlocking it to find the source of the vibration. You noticed a single unread message in your text log, in fact, it was the only message. 

`Are you not enjoying the show?`

You frowned at the words, glancing back at the Kaiba brothers to see them staring into one of the windows of the orphanage. Neither of them seemed to have noticed you, considering how intently they were watching something you could not see and talking to one another at a level you’d only be able to decipher if you strained your ears. Seto had a frown on his face, and Mokuba a look of melancholy you were not used to seeing. 

`Who is this?`

`I’m sure you can take a guess.`

Considering you were inside of a world apparently controlled by your childhood friend, and your cell signal had been blocked earlier to anyone outside, there was only one option. To your knowledge, Seto and Doll were about the only two people in the world capable of hacking into a digital construct of this scale. You highly doubted Doll would have been able to hack in so quickly, if she even knew you’d disappeared yet. And Seto, well, he was standing right in front of you.

`Noah?`

`Bingo! I’m so glad you remember me.`

`Of course I remember you.`

After you hit send your screen immediately went black, before just as quickly turning itself back on as if someone had pressed a refresh button. You noticed the chat window had changed a bit, the place where a sender’s name would normally go now had the symbol of a heart, also appearing next to each of Noah’s messages. You resisted the urge to roll your eyes.

`♡: You always were so sweet. `

You frowned down at the message and tapped your thumb at the side of your cell phone. Just what the hell was Noah’s game here? Why was he messaging you, rather than talking aloud like he had been earlier? He was up to something, and you didn’t like it. 

`What do you want? `

`♡: Straight to the point, hm? Oh all right, I want to make a deal with you. `

You glanced up to confirm the boys were still unaware of your texting. You wanted to get as much information out of Noah as possible, but if Seto knew what you were up to he would probably go off on you. 

`What kind of deal? `

`♡: Do me a favor and don't tell them who I am, won’t you? I'd really like to make my own introductions, and you telling them you grew up with me would just spoil the fun. `

You scoffed under your breath. `This is your idea of fun? `

`♡: It's sort if like watching a movie, don't you think?`

`At someone else's expense, I suppose. `

` `♡: Just be glad it isn't at your expense. Keep my little secret, and I promise it'll stay that way. I'm sure you don't want those two seeing all those painful memories of the lab. ` `

As you tried to think up a reply, you darted your eyes up to the sound of a terrifyingly familiar voice, and sucked in a sharp breath. The tall, tackily dressed figure of Gozaburo Kaiba entered the frame of the brothers’ memories, and instinctively you took a step away from the pillar you were leaned on to take on a more defensive stance. Seto seemed to notice this, and turned his head to look over at you. 

“It’s just a hologram,” he repeated, perhaps for the fourth time in the last ten minutes. When he realized his words had little effect on you he cast a glance to Mokuba, who seemed to have forgotten you were even there, focus completely occupied by Gozaburo as he walked down the outdoor hallway toward the three of you. Seto then left his brother’s side and quickly closed the distance between the two of you, his hands gripping your shoulders before you’d even realized he’d moved them. 

“Look at me,” he said quietly, before repeating the words in a more commanding tone and prompting your eyes to lock with his. “That is not Gozaburo Kaiba, do you understand?” 

You blinked and opened your mouth to respond, but found you couldn’t get any words to come out. With that a frustrated growl left his throat, and his brow furrowed even further. 

“I’ve got enough to deal with in this virtual mess of a world without having to worry about you too.” He seethed, though when he searched your face and discovered his words only made your shoulders tremble, he sighed and closed his eyes. He allowed himself a few even breaths before he opened them again, the sapphire hue holding your attention. 

“Listen to me,” he began, this time his voice considerable softer, “Everything we’re seeing is just memories replaying, none of it is real. You know that.” He waited for you to respond, and you somehow managed a nod before he spoke again. “Gozaburo Kaiba is dead. I watched him leap out a window myself.” 

You nodded again. 

“Say it,” he demanded, giving your shoulders a light shake, “Now.” 

“Gozaburo Kaiba is dead.” You repeated, finding the words trivially easy to speak aloud. You blinked up at him, a long breath leaving your mouth. “Sorry, Seto.” 

He merely shook his head to wave you off, releasing your shoulders and turning away from you to return to his brother’s side. You collected yourself and looked back at the copy of Gozaburo as it disappeared into the room Mokuba was staring into. You glanced back down at the phone when it buzzed, alerting you of a new message. 

`♡: Sorry, I didn’t think that would make you so upset.`

You bit at the your lip and frowned. You hadn’t expected it to make you so upset, either. You knew Gozaburo was dead, knew you no longer had anything to worry about when it came to him, knew he no longer held any ounce of power over you. Yet seeing him, standing there, walking toward you… for a moment it sent you back to that place you’d been as a kid. You felt that same primal fear you always had when he passed by your cell, or viewed you from the observation windows, or stood over you strapped to a table and ordered doctors to inject you with god knew what. Another message appeared on your screen. 

` `♡: You know, I didn’t expect you to be here. ` `

` `What, with Seto and Mokuba?` `

` `♡: Yes. I figured you would want nothing to do with them after everything that happened to you, all that pain Seto caused you. ` `

You raised an eyebrow. ` I think you mean the pain your father caused me. `

` `♡: Of course. I know my father… what he did to you was terrible. But considering it was Seto’s fault I didn’t think you’d be following him around. ` `

` `Noah what the hell are you talking about?` `

`♡: Well if he hadn’t gotten that crush on you or slacked off on his studies, you would have never gotten punished for his mistakes, right? I mean, if he hadn’t come into the picture in the first place, your life would have been perfect.`

You had to take a moment to stop the furious trembling in your fingers before you even began to formulate a response. You could swear you were seeing red. This was fucking ridiculous, of course none of that was Seto’s fault. By the time you had even started to calm down, another message popped up. 

`♡: And even after everything he’s put you through, he still treats you like the dirt under his shoe.`

You couldn’t deal with this right now, you had more important things to worry about than whatever propaganda Noah was trying to push on you. You clicked off the screen and shoved it in your pocket, taking in a long breath to calm yourself down. You noticed Mokuba and Seto had begun arguing, and looked up to see the younger pointing angrily at the window that they’d been looking into. 

“I liked things better the way they were before! Back then, at least you smiled once in a while! Now you’re never happy!”

“Mokuba--” 

Mokuba ripped open the door beside the window, and where once it had lead to a sort of classroom, now staring inside you noticed there was only blackness. Mokuba began to take a step inside, so quickly he didn’t even process the fact that there was no floor beneath his feet. You yourself took a step forward, frantically clearing your mind as the young boy looked down to realize his mistake.

_Stop._

As his hand left the edge of the door, he had no way to support himself, and you watched his body tumble forward. 

_I said stop!_

A scream ripped through his throat as his body disappeared, and Seto dove forward to catch him. He fell to the ground, one arm reaching over the ledge that lead to only blackness, the other planted firmly on the ground beside him. It took you nearly half a second to snap yourself out of a third attempt at your ability, and you took off toward the boys.

“Nii-sama don’t let go, please!”

_No, no, no. This cannot be happening._

You scrambled forward next to Seto, leaning over the ledge to try to grasp at Mokuba’s hand. Seto’s long arms made it difficult to reach, so you had to scoot as far forward as possible and support your weight with only your left hand. After stretching your arm more than you thought possible, you managed to grip at Mokuba’s wrist, and assisted the elder in pulling up his brother. Once he was safely above ground, you placed a hand on your chest to steady your breathing, before being suddenly yanked by your shoulders. You found yourself staring at the elder, face inches from yours, blue eyes filled with a burning fury. 

“Why didn’t you stop him?” Seto demanded loudly.

You blinked a few times before you were able to form a response, “I… I couldn’t.”

“What the hell do you mean? You should have--”

“I said I _couldn’t._ ”

He glared at you for long enough that he realized your breathing was elevated, more than it should have been from just helping him pull Mokuba up. For a moment, you thought he might even be able to hear your heartbeat from how loudly it was throbbing against your ears. His eyes widened slightly in understanding, only for a moment, before quickly reforming his features into a scowl. He released your shoulders somewhat forcefully and stood up, spinning on his heels so his coat nearly smacked you in the face. 

“I know you can hear me Noah!” He shouted, “You won’t get away with this you little brat!” 

You ignored his shouting and turned your attention to Mokuba, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, thanks to you two.” He nodded, offering you a smile as he began to calm down. You nodded back, helping him to his feet and occupying yourself with observing your newfound surroundings. The environment had changed itself in the short time it had taken you to pull Mokuba from the cliffside, a violent ocean crashing its waves against the rocks below, stretching for as far as the eye could see. Behind you, what had once been a classroom door was now an expanse of grey, desolate wastes. In either direction, there seemed to be no end in sight, and you sighed at the fact that the three of you seemed to be, once again, relegated to wandering in nothingness at Noah’s whim. As you tapped your foot against the rocks, you heard Mokuba’s voice beside you. 

“I thought we had the latest virtual technology, but,” he began, “This place feels way more real than your Solid Vision, or any virtual world I’ve ever been in. If… if you hadn’t grabbed my arm… who knows what would have happened to me.” 

There was a long pause, and you felt your phone buzz again in your pocket. You frowned at the sensation, before plucking it out to see what it said, if for no other reason than to satisfy your own curiosity.

`♡: You know he’s just using you, right?`

You started down at the screen for a moment, feeling a knot form in your chest as you read over the words again. An ellipsis appeared beneath the message to indicate Noah was typing, or he was trying to simulate the feeling that he was. You found yourself more than a little compelled to watch the three dots bounce up and down, waiting to see what he would say next, despite the rational portion of your brain telling you to just get rid of the phone already. 

`♡: Now that he’s realized your abilities don’t work in my world, he’s just going to throw you away. Just like everyone else he doesn’t think is ‘useful’. You saw that look in his eyes, didn’t you?`

“Mokuba,” came Seto's voice behind you.

“Yeah, what is it?” 

“I want you to know… whatever else we see today, it's all just memories. I'm not proud of everything in our past, but everything I did I did for us. To give you a better life.”

You sighed to yourself, feeling somewhat guilty for even entertaining what Noah had typed out. You clicked off the screen and returned the phone to your pocket, shaking your head a few times. Even if it was true, what did it matter if Seto was just using you? Wasn't that sort of the point of your job? You were a glorified bodyguard. You were here for a mission, to protect the Kaiba brothers. And you were going to do that no matter what. 

After allowing the two a moment, you took your KA-BAR from your waistband and kept it at your side. Even if you couldn't use your abilities here, you were still a soldier, trained extensively in hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat. You could keep the brothers safe even without your powers. You would make sure of it. 

“So, which way now?” You asked. 

Mokuba came to stand at your side and scanned the expanse ahead of you, “flip a coin?” 

You glanced over at Seto, who was eyeing the combat knife in your hand wordlessly. After a moment he merely shrugged, and began walking in an arbitrary direction. You and Mokuba followed closely after, and you had to resist the urge to pull out your phone again as it buzzed. You needed, at the very least, five minutes before dealing with Noah again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this is giving me an excuse to re-watch both the English and Japanese virtual world arcs and WOW are they different. Like I know 4Kids censored the shit outta this show but I didn't remember the English dialogue being so much different. There's like entire scenes where Seto and Mokuba are walking in silence in the Japanese but in the English they're randomly talking it's kind of amazing. It's also real wild watching the English and there being no mention about Kaiba Corp. being a defense contracting company in the memories, yet they'll mention Gozaburo building weapons? I guess just for funsies? Also some of the Big Five have completely different motives for wanting to kick the shit outta Kaiba. 
> 
> It's not a critique on either version it's just weird to compare I'm having a good time with it tbh. Anyway, dialogue for this fic, especially Virtual World, is mainly from the Japanese. It's more canonical, and fits with the fic more because they actually says the words 'war' and 'weapons of mass destruction'. Also Kaiba is way fucking hotter in the Japanese for this arc JUST SAYING.


	20. Sharpening the Axe

After what seemed like hours of wandering through a vast, grey nothingness, the scenery eventually changed to a landscape of pastel green. The stone at Seto’s feet changed to grass, rocks to bushes and small clumps of flowers, cliffs in the distance to tall trees. He had gotten quickly fed up with the color grey, yet somehow the forest landscape the three of you now found yourselves in was even worse. 

“Oh lovely, more trees,” you hummed sardonically, echoing his silent sentiments. 

“Do you think any of these virtual berries are edible?” Mokuba asked hopefully.

“You hungry?”

He looked up at you and nodded, “Starving.” 

You looked over to Seto, but he merely shook his head. He had more important things to focus on than hunger pangs. You slipped your cell phone into your pocket, and as you did so Seto realized you’d been taking it out fairly often as they’d walked in mostly silence. What on earth could you possibly be using it for in this virtual prison? He watched you pull your bag off your shoulders and unzip one of the many pockets, digging around for a moment before pulling out a protein bar and offering it to his brother. 

“Dunno if it’ll actually do anything, but it’s worth a shot,” you said.

“Thanks!” He grinned before tearing the aluminum wrapping from the bar and biting into it. After a few chews, he frowned at it, before pulling the wrapping back up to examine the flavor. It seemed to disappoint him, but he politely took another bite and said nothing about the taste. When Seto looked back at you, you were spinning your combat knife between two of your fingers and staring straight ahead. 

“You came to my tournament prepared,” Seto observed. 

“Yeah well, that’s sort of my job.” 

Mokuba looked up at you as well, “What is your job anyway?”

You continued spinning the knife in your hand, though Seto noted it fumbled slightly at the question. Your face assumed a thoughtful frown, and for a moment both brothers thought you might not give an answer. You eventually gave a casual shrug.

“Think of me as your bodyguard.” 

Mokuba cocked his head in confusion, “We… you’re not hired by Kaiba Corp. right?” 

Seto thought the question ridiculous enough that he couldn’t hold back a scoff, “She absolutely is not.”

“So why are you our bodyguard?”

“Because I want to be,” you replied simply. When Mokuba continued to stare at you, you stopped spinning your knife and looked down at him with a sigh, “I’m a good fighter, and I don’t want you two getting hurt. Bodyguard seems like a pretty good way to accomplish that.” 

“We have bodyguards, you know.” Seto pointed out. 

“Yeah, your bodyguards are shit.” You replied, though you immediately apologized to Mokuba for the language before continuing. “Most of them are, anyway. Isono’s doing alright.” 

His brother seemed to garner more questions than answers from your words, but though he had a contemplative look on his face and kept looking between the two of you, he didn’t ask anything else. Seto wasn’t positive if he was trying to hold himself back from asking anything, or if he was just trying to think of what exactly to ask, but before he was able to you pointed to something ahead of them. Mokuba looked to where you were pointing, before slipping the remaining half of the protein bar you’d given him into his pocket. 

“That doesn’t seem suspicious at all.” You muttered. 

“Maybe we should try to take a break in there,” Mokuba suggested cautiously. 

Seto glanced over at you, and you flipped your knife in your hands before nodding. The three of you had been walking for ages, and even he liked the idea of taking a break, if for no one else than for his brother’s sake. He lead the way toward the cabin, you and Mokuba close behind him, your footfalls on the grass becoming the only sound as you got further from the forest. 

_This could be another one of Noah’s ridiculous traps._

As he reached for the door, he looked back to you briefly to see you partially unsheathe your knife, and though he loathed to admit it he felt significantly safer with you behind him. Another blinding light flooded through the door when he pulled it open, before the scenery inside changed to an alarmingly familiar sight. 

“This is--” He began. 

“Our house.” Mokuba finished.

The small forms of he and his brother as children began walking past him, the younger clutching at the back of his blue sweater vest and pensively looking around the mansion with terrified eyes. Seto watched you return your knife to its fully sheathed state and take a few steps to stand next to him, your own eyes wide as you watched the scene unfold. 

“Is this...” you began, “Was this your first day in the mansion?” 

He nodded, and felt a frown creeping onto his face. He hated the fact that you were here to see their childhood, the fact that you were intruding on their memories even if it hadn’t been your intention. Why did you have to get dumped with him and his brother in this world? He was sure there were plenty of other places Noah could have dropped you. 

Still, it was better you than anyone else. Had it been any members of the Geek Squad, Seto probably would have strangled them by now. At least you already knew about parts of their past, and since you were all now in the mansion there probably weren’t very many things Noah could show you that you didn’t already know, or hadn’t already figured out. And, if nothing else, at least he felt better having you around to keep Mokuba out of danger. Hopefully, you wouldn’t continue to be as useless as you had been on that cliff.

The three of you followed the smaller versions of he and his brother down the hallway as the scene shifted to one of the libraries. The younger version of Seto sitting at a table, books piled around him and in the middle of a chemistry lecture. It was the first, and only time, he’d ever made the mistake of dozing off during class. He noticed you cringe a bit as a long metal pointer was slammed onto the table to wake his younger self, causing a sharp slap to echo through the room. 

After watching the head butler threaten to send him and his brother back to the orphanage if he continued to slack off, the scene shifted once again before the three of you. The long, lonely dining room table, piled high with food and seating only Gozaburo, himself, and Mokuba. Both he and his brother watched you curiously as you scoffed, before walking toward the table to get a closer look at his stepfather. 

“This tacky thing was _yellow_?” You muttered aloud, sounding both simultaneously disgusted and intrigued. 

Seto found the question odd, not just because it seemed a strange thing to focus on while watching their memories, but because of the way you phrased it. The ‘thing’ you were referring to was obviously the playboy-style bathrobe Gozaburo was wearing. But he was almost positive you never would have seen him wearing it, considering he only did so at night, and you were never in the mansion past four unless it was for a party. So why would you know he owned it, and even if you had seen him wearing it, why wouldn’t you have known it was yellow?

He was about to ask you about it, but you had already focused your attention on the conversation at the table. Gozaburo had asked his younger self what he intended to do with Kaiba Corporation when he became CEO, and in his naivety he had responded truthfully, about his passion for games and dreams to make Kaiba Land a reality. The response from his stepfather had been swift, Gozaburo demanded all their games be confiscated and his younger self master the ‘ways of a king’ as he called it. 

The rest of the evening played out slowly, haunted by an uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the three of you. Seto found he spent more time looking at your reactions than at the memories themselves. You were standing only a few steps in front of him, so absorbed in what you saw that you didn’t notice he was watching you. Your reactions were so honest and expressive, and he found himself intrigued by the faces you were making. The way you scrunched your nose in anger each time that butler you hated spoke, or how you smiled the entire time you watched his younger self sort through the cards Mokuba had given him after all his games had been taken. What he really noticed is the way you stared down at your pinky as the head butler left his old bedroom with the box of games, a regretful frown taking over your lips.

Mokuba was also watching the scenes intently, not at all focused on you, and Seto inwardly cursed the fact that he was the only one barely interested in these memories. He had seen them all before, in fact he’d lived them. It wasn’t like he needed a history lesson. He really wanted nothing more than to get this whole thing over with so he could find Noah and demand an explanation. 

As if his mind had been read, in that moment the scene around the three of you collapsed, shattering into bits of data and leaving you standing in a black room, only lit by two white spotlights. One was shining directly on you, Mokuba, and him. The other cast a bright light on that annoying little brat, who had a childish grin on his face. He was clapping his hands softly, as if he’d just finished watching a play. 

“What beautiful brotherly love, you two,” he said, his high voice teetering between taunting and praising, “Seems like you’ve also had a painful childhood, haven’t you Seto?”

“You,” Seto frowned, “Why are you showing us all this?”

“I want to show you two how you drove Gozaburo Kaiba to his death,” Noah replied in a sing-song voice, “So that you can be properly punished for it.” 

At that, Seto noticed your head snap up to look at Noah, eyes wide in confusion. You began looking around the rest of the blackness as well, but said nothing as you did so, looking more and more worried as the seconds ticked by.

“Who the hell are you, Noah?” Seto demanded. 

Noah’s eyes glanced past him to meet yours, and the oppressive grin that spread across his face caused you to grip at your knife harder than you already had been. You had that same look on your face he’d noticed earlier when that hologram of Gozaburo had first appeared. For now, Seto chose to ignore it and returned his attention fully to Noah. 

“You’ll find out soon enough, enjoy waiting for that moment.” He laughed, the obnoxious sound bouncing around the blackness that held you all as his body began to dissolve into nothingness. 

Seto took a moment to search his surroundings, but finding the boy was completely gone and there way no way to force him to return, he merely let out a frustrated groan. When he turned to look to you, your face had already gone back to normal, a frown on your face and that same confusion glinting in your eyes. You’d taken to crossing your arms over your chest, and you no longer had the hilt of your combat knife in a death grip.

Seto continued to stare at you, and when you noticed, you uncrossed your arms and turned your body to him. You made no indication you were going to speak. Instead you eventually furrowed your brow in an attempt to prompt him to speak, and Seto let out a sigh. There was something you weren’t telling him, but he had no evidence other than a few faces you’d made. Even then, he had no idea what those faces could have been in response to, exactly. Given time, however, he was certain he could manipulate you into telling him.

The darkness began to disappear, the scenery of a forest returned, and each of you simultaneously groaned.

\-----

“Have you found her yet?”

Doll huffed into the mug of tea at her lips, tapping one of her stiletto nails against her desk three times before setting the drink back down and swiveling her chair around. 

“Blade it’s only been five minutes since you last asked.” She said with a huff, her European accent muddling with the English words in her frustration.

“So, is that a no?”

She pointed to one of her six computer monitors, showing a map of the ocean off the coast of Domino City, and a small red ‘X’ marking the location your cell signal had abruptly cut out. A second window was open on the same screen, one which had both a scanner and a loading bar that Blade could make absolutely no sense of and Doll was not at all in the mood to explain.

“That is a no,” she confirmed with a shake of her head, her white curls bouncing side to side as she did so. 

“Well why aren’t you looking right now?”

She raised an eyebrow and once again pointed to the monitor, “What do you think that is?” 

“Yeah but, can’t you… I don’t know… do something more active?” He asked, making a motion with his fingers like he was typing.

Doll blinked in confusion a few times as she tried to decipher his game of charades, and once she understood she abruptly stood from her chair and looked like she was about to smack him. Blade took a step back and brought his hands up as if to calm her down, though it only served to frustrate her more. She placed a forceful hand on his shoulder and turned him around like a spinning top, shoving him toward her bedroom door.

“ _Hurensohn_! How many times do I have to tell you that this stuff isn’t like it is in the movies? Now quit bothering me! _Geh mir aus den Augen_!”

With that, she pushed him out and slammed the door behind him, leaving him to stare at the opposite wall for a few moments in stunned silence. He glanced down the hallway to see James, peeking his head out from his own room and offering a shrug before ducking back inside. He sighed, rubbing at his forehead before returning downstairs to continue pacing about the living room.

\-----

You'd felt like you'd been underwater. When Noah appeared before the three of you, your vision had started to blur and the conversation between him and Seto had sounded far away and muffled. You hadn’t been able to understand any of their words. It felt like you were drowning, but you could breathe just fine, and there hadn't been any water around you.

It was strange. Then again, so was this world. But Seto hadn't said anything about the sensation, and afterward had spent a long while staring at you as if he expected you to comment on the conversation you could not hear. Texting Noah had proved fruitless, when you asked about the sensation he had suggested you were having some sort of reaction to the virtual software. You highly doubted it, though. Up until that point, and right after, you’d felt perfectly fine, and the timing was way too convenient to be overlooked. 

No, you were positive Noah was hiding something from you.

“This forest never ends,” Mokuba groaned.

“Remember when I was complaining about the cliff side? I take it back. Anything to get out of these damn trees.” You agreed.

Walking a few steps behind you, you could hear Seto grumbling something under his breath. As you were about to ask what he had said, you noticed a rippling in the path up ahead. After a moment, another door appeared through the trees, looking the same as the first of its kind. A deep, glossy wood with ornate gold detailing around the perimeter and a shiny silver handle.

“Ask and we shall receive, I suppose,” you hummed, and as you did so your phone vibrated in your pocket. You chose to ignore it. 

Both you and Mokuba turned your heads to look at Seto, who reached for the door handle without hesitation, and pulled it open for the three of you to step inside. The trees of the forest disappeared, instead turning to a room you hadn’t seen before. The grey and blue speckled stone floor caused your and Kaiba’s boots to echo off the walls, all of which were white save the one all the way in the back which was made entirely of windows.

“The Kaiba Corporation president’s office,” Seto said aloud in recognition. The three of you took a moment to scan your surroundings, before noticing the high back, black leather chair behind the desk at the end of the room. It was faced toward the windows, but you could just barely make out the top of someone’s head against the bright light of the outside world. 

“What do you want?” Came Gozaburo’s voice, causing you to jump a bit in surprise. Both the Kaiba brothers did the same, before you each glanced to one another. Was he… speaking to you? 

In an instant, the form of a young Seto Kaiba appeared in front of you, and you sighed a little in relief. You then looked over the boy, and realized he was significantly taller than you remembered him being as a child. This must have happened long after you were already in the lab. 

“It’s about the virtual system I developed,” the young man replied.

“I remember this,” the current Seto spoke next to you, “This was two years before I took over the company.” 

You realized, as he said those words, that there was more emotion in his voice than there had been while he watched any of the other memories. 

“There’s nothing to talk about,” Gozaburo dismissed, “I’m busy. Get out of my sight.” 

“No,” the young Seto said defiantly, “I created that system to be used for playing games, but you’re using it for war!”

“Did you not hear me? I said get out of my sight.” 

You noticed your best friend was making a fist with his hand, and when you looked up at him, his brow was furrowed and his jaw was clenched in anger. 

“My virtual system is not a tool for war!” He continued, “It’s for the Kaiba Land that I--”

You watched the form of the young Kaiba flinch as a large stack of papers came flying at him. He blocked most of them with his arm, but as they made contact the sound echoed sharply throughout the office. You quickly averted your eyes from you boy to instead look up to your side, only to see Seto had looked away from the sight as well. His blue eyes were hidden behind the eyelids he had squeezed shut, and the scowl on his face made your chest feel heavy. 

“Get out right now!” Gozaburo roared, “What a bunch of nonsense. Making ridiculous games is not what I am training you to do. The Kaiba name is one that will rule the world, do you understand? My goal is to rule as a defense contractor, and with your virtual system I will redraw the world map as I see fit.”

You were starting to feel ill. 

“You’re wrong, father!” The hologram of a young Seto argued, but as he did two large men in suits gripped his arms and lifted him in the air, forcefully dragging his from the office as he yelled for Gozaburo to listen to him. You couldn’t stomach watching the rest of the scene, instead staring at your best friend as the shouting of his younger self became nothing but background noise. He had taken to biting at his lower lip and glaring straight ahead, you weren’t quite sure if he hadn’t noticed you staring or simply ignored it, and he did so until the scene dissolved.

Mokuba began looking around frantically as the three of you returned to a green world, bushes placing themselves in the ground and trees emerging from thin air with the sound of digital noise. As much as you wanted to lament the fact that you were back in a fucking forest, you had more important things on your mind. Namely, trying to figure out if there was anything at all you could say to comfort your friend. 

“Seto--” you began. 

“He wanted to use my own technology for war. Exchanging people’s lives for his own financial gain,” he interrupted, and as he said this the two of you locked eyes. Though his words were vague you knew he was talking, at least in part, about you. “I refused to let someone that corrupt use my system. That day I made the decision to forsake him as my father, and that I would take over Kaiba Corporation to stop him.”

“ _Nii-sama_...” Mokuba muttered as he joined your side. The two of you watched him as he closed his eyes to collect himself momentarily, before speaking again. 

“This Noah kid is laughing at me expense, intruding on my memories to get a reaction out of me. It’s unforgivable.” He snapped his head upward to look at the blue sky above, clenching his fist in front of him, “Listen up Noah! You’re probably doing all this so you can take over Kaiba Corporation, but I won’t allow it! I’ll completely crush you, and make you regret ever bringing me here!” 

_...Oh._

As you watched him shout into the nothingness above, his sapphire eyes burning with an unmatched passion and a fury, you felt something swell in your chest. A bubbling in your stomach. His bangs swayed in the the light breeze that flowed through the trees, revealing the way his eyebrows had furrowed in defiance and conviction. 

_Right._

After a moment, he brought his hand back to his side and removed his gaze from the sky, eyes traveling first to his brother and then to you. He raised an eyebrow as you stared at him, finding yourself unable to look away from the infallible blue that seemed to trap you in their gaze. He quickly seemed to get impatient, and broke eye contact to face forward again. 

“Come on then,” he ordered, “Let’s keep walking.”

_I’m in love with him._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I said slow build I meant it.


	21. An Empty House

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoops my hand slipped now I've spilled angst everywhere

Noah Kaiba frowned at one of the many screens in front of him and leaned his cheek against his fist in thought. His other hand sat upon the armrest of his chair, index finger tapping rhythmically in an effort to ground himself. Things, so far, were not going exactly as planned. He wasn’t terribly bothered by the complete and utter failure shown by the Big Five thus far, to be honest he had been expecting it, at least to a degree. They had been stupid enough to get their minds stuck in a virtual prison by falling into their own trap, at the hands of someone as worthless as Seto Kaiba. It was honestly pathetic. Still, he’d expected at least a little more from them, Otaki especially. The fool lost to a girl who barely knew how the game worked.

Aside from the five utter failures he’d allowed to be part of his master plan out of the goodness of his heart, there was another thorn in his scheme that was starting to become a nuisance. And he was looking right at her. Now going under the name of ‘Ghost’, at least to everyone aside from him and your current travel companions, you were more difficult to deal with than he’d first anticipated. Noah knew you were going to be coming to his world the second you qualified as a finalist in Seto’s silly little tournament. At first he figured it would make all his plans that much easier. Doing some digging into your background, however… complicated things, to say the least. 

It seemed you idolized Seto, through some misguided idea that the fool had saved your life from the laboratories his father put you in. Noah thought he could convince you that all of it was Seto’s fault, but so far you hadn’t seemed susceptible to his manipulations. Whether that was because of your training in the labs, or because you were just that enamored with the boy, he wasn’t positive. 

For a while it seemed his texts were getting to you, at least a little, especially after that little fall Mokuba had taken over the cliffside. Unfortunately, after the last few memories, Noah noticed you pulling out your phone less frequently to check his messages, and spending more of your time staring at Seto. It was infuriating. 

His number one priority was showing Seto painful memories of the past to teach him a lesson, put on a spectacle that told the story of how he had cruelly driven his father to suicide. Prove that not only was he unfit to be controlling Kaiba Corporation, but that had it not been for his intrusion into the family, Noah would be the one in control of the company he rightfully deserved. Had Seto not shoved his way into all of your lives, everything would be perfect. His father would have continued training him as planned, you would still be his best friend, and those two parasitic brothers would still be begging in an orphanage where they belonged. 

What Noah couldn’t comprehend was why couldn’t you see that? Why couldn’t you understand that Seto was the reason his father had changed, become so cold and distant? You would have never gotten sent to the lab if you had just stayed friends with him, rather than with that cheap imitation of a Kaiba. You were too blinded by love to see it all, clearly. But Noah had ways to fix that, to open your eyes and convince you that you should be at his side, not Seto’s. He just needed to… adjust his approach a little. 

“I think it’s time we start driving a wedge,” Noah hummed aloud, a grin creeping onto his face, “Let’s get serious about this, shall we?”

\--

“If I see another tree I think I’m going to go crazy,” Mokuba groaned. 

“Maybe if we walk for long enough Noah will treat us to a nice field of flowers,” you suggested sarcastically, although part of you hoped he was listening and would change the forest to something different. You didn’t even care what it was, you’d take anything at this point.

“Do you think if we shout at him he’ll do it?” Mokuba asked, though he was joking there was a spark of hope in his voice. 

“Worth a shot.”

Seto pinched at the bridge of his nose in irritation as his younger brother began shouting into the wind, first that he take them somewhere that wasn’t a forest before he quickly devolved into simply demanding the three of you be let out of the virtual world altogether. The elder Kaiba shot you a glare, which you took to mean he did not appreciate you encouraging said shouting, but you brushed it off. The kid needed to get out his frustrations, he-- all of you-- were wound up tighter than a ball of rubber bands. 

Once his shouting died down, Mokuba looked around the forest with a glare, then let out a long sigh of defeat. Seto waved you two of you to continue, and wordlessly you all began traveling down the dirt path once again. The sound of birds chirping looped in the background, a breeze blowing through your hair and the smell of moss wafting up from the grassy rocks you stepped over. How long had you all been walking? Your concept of time was all sorts of messed up, it felt like you’d been trudging along for hours but you were neither hungry or tired, other than the general soreness and exhaustion of walking. The color of the sky had remained a brilliant blue, and the time on your phone had been frozen at 10:42 since you had made a mental note of it, back when you’d been walking through the grey expanse of nothingness. 

The blare of a car horn startled you out of your thoughts, and surprised Mokuba enough that he jumped, elbow colliding with your stomach. You stumbled backwards briefly, your back coming into contact with Seto’s chest lightly enough that his hum above you seemed more in reaction to the sound than to you. 

“You guys heard that right?” Mokuba asked after steadying himself. 

You and Seto both gave a short ‘mhm’ in confirmation. 

The three of you started walking again, curious to find the source of the sound, as the dirt path at your feet began to shift into a paved road. The blue sky was replaced with a grey, clouded one, and the trees began to shift into the sides of buildings. Seemed that you’d been put into an alleyway. Up ahead, perhaps another sixty feet, the alley broke into a wide street, the signs of which were in Japanese. On the other side of the street was a high stone wall with wrought iron fencing lining its top, tall enough that one couldn’t peer over it. You paused in front of it, Mokuba taking to examining the surface of the stone curiously and you biting at your bottom lip. 

The street was familiar, looking to your left you recognized the entrance to a park on the outskirts of Domino City. Past it, a four-way intersection that housed a long since closed boutique on one of its corners. Combined with the wrought iron fencing, a Victorian style not seen much in Japan, and you were fairly certain you knew where Noah had brought you. 

“This way,” Seto said calmly, taking a sharp turn to the right and continuing on the sidewalk without waiting for either you or Mokuba though you both quickly chased after him. He stopped at a large gate, the same style at the iron spikes on the stone wall. It was a gate you’d seen before, many many times before, and you felt your chest begin to ache. You didn’t even need to look past it to confirm your suspicions, but your attention was nonetheless drawn there when Mokuba pointed at the gate. 

“Where the heck are we?” He asked, finger extending just barely between the bars of the Victorian style fencing so he pointed at the house inside. It was big, not nearly as large as the mansion you’d spent so much time in as a child, but big enough that it was obvious someone wealthy lived inside. What once had been a pure white exterior and creme colored accents, kept in pristine condition by a hired staff of all-Japanese workers, was now showing signs of age and wear. Dirt on the face of the home, faint water stains from the rain gutter, spots of lightly chipping paint on the windowsills. The sorts of things that only accumulate over a few years, but that looked spectacularly out of place on a home so grand. One that had been in immaculate condition before. If one didn’t notice the wear on the home, the garden would tell the story. Grass that hadn’t been cut in months, overgrown hedges and wilted rose bushes, vines that had begun to peak out over the top of the wall seperating a calm city from the sinister sights within.

This was the one place you’d never wanted to return. The lab had bad memories, of course, but it had been destroyed. The building itself no longer stood, the only thing you could go back to there was a pile of rubble and debris behind a high fence which no longer produced electricity. This place, however, still stood. Like a snapshot in time, one that you hadn’t had the heart to tear down nor the stomach to re-enter. 

And now Noah had brought you back. 

“What is this place?” Mokuba asked. 

You tried to open your mouth to speak, but found the words caught in your throat and your lips tightly sealed. 

“Wherever it is, it’s a dump.” Seto hummed in annoyance. 

Your phone buzzed in your back pocket. You couldn’t will yourself to move to look at it, nor did you have any desire too. Noah had promised he wouldn’t show off your painful childhood memories, you had a deal. Don’t tell the boys about him and your memories of the lab were safe. 

As you thought over the words again, you scoffed to yourself, half in dumbfoundedness and half in anger. He had said your lab memories would be kept a secret, he never said anything about the memories before you left, or those after you got out. Like father like son, you supposed, he knew his way around a binding contract, a way to get what he wanted through loopholes and half-truths. On cue, the familiar voice of your childhood friend echoed throughout the still air surrounding the three of you, cutting through your thoughts like a well-sharpened blade. 

“I think it’s time you experience someone else’s pain, Seto. You’ve caused quite a lot of it in your lifetime.”

“Ridiculous,” he said with a shake of his head, “What, is your plan to show me images of the sad fools who have gotten in the way of my company’s progress? Do you think that will make me feel bad?”

His tone was harsh and dismissive, arms crossed over his chest and nose turned up at the very idea that someone else’s pain could affect him. It was probably true, at the very least if the person wasn’t someone he knew personally. If it was someone who ‘got in the way’ as he called it, Seto seemed wholly unsympathetic to them or their plights, if the way he treated the other duelists on the blimp was any indication. 

“So harsh,” Noah’s voice chided in a sing-song, “I wonder if you’ll keep that tone once who figure out whose house this is. I’ll give you a hint, she’s standing right next to you.”

You nearly laughed at the fact that Seto looked to his other side, assuming there would be a projection or hologram of another woman to give him answers, before he realized Noah was talking about you. His brow creased into a frown, eyes narrowing on your face as he searched your eyes. You weren’t sure how you looked at the moment, but you were trying to hold together your best poker face. Whether it was working or not was anyone’s guess, considering Seto had one of his own. 

The sound of a car door slamming caused him to snap his head in the other direction, where your and Mokuba’s gazes followed. A young woman stood on the sidewalk at the side of a taxi cab, staring up at the high stone walls. She was dressed in an ill-fitted pair of jeans, denim faded from years of wear and covered in stains that hadn’t come out in the wash, with the right pant leg torn at the knee. The tee-shirt she wore was clearly too big for her, as she had tied it up in the back with a rubber band so the baggy fabric didn’t completely cloak her thin frame. And you were not lying when you said thin; thin in the sense that the girl looked like she hadn’t eaten in months. Her hair looked a disaster, ripe with split ends and chunks of uneven length, framing her tired face which squinted against the dim light of the clouded sky as if she hadn’t seen sunlight in years. 

“Is that…?” Mokuba began to ask, though the final word died on his lips. 

“Me.” You confirmed. Although you said that, looking at yourself in the grey, empty Domino City streets, you couldn’t manage to associate yourself with her. That person, the girl you had been, seemed so far away from what you were now. Yet you were her, or rather you had been her, and loathed though you were to admit or remember, this day was still clear in your head.

Your younger self watched the taxi cab speed away, and tried to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear before realizing it had been slashed too short to reach. With a sigh, she let it fall back against her cheek, and turned her attention to the home you had grown up in. Walking up with a spring in her step, surprising considering the four years she’d been trapped inside of that wretched facility but expected now that she were finally home after it all, she put a hand on the metal gate before pausing. She scanned the overgrown grass and untrimmed bushes, a frown crossing her lips, before she pushed at the heavy gate. With a small amount of effort it gave way, and the girl you had once been began down the path home. 

The iron gate remained open behind her, and you and the Kaiba brothers exchanged looks. They each looked hesitant, normal for the younger but uncharacteristic for the elder. It was as if they were asking permission to intrude on your memories, much as you had initially when Noah began playing theirs. With a shrug, you gestured for them to go inside. It wasn’t like you were going to get anywhere standing around, Noah wouldn’t allow that. And, looking up, your former self had paused at the front door, almost frozen in place, as if to say the memory wouldn’t continue playing unless you all followed. 

But you’d be damned if you were going in first. 

Seto quickly recovered from his hesitancy and started off down the cobblestone path to your home, and both you and Mokuba followed, the younger reaching his hand up to clasp yours. It was warm, warmer than you remembered it being what felt like an hour before. He said nothing, but kept his eyes locked on you until all three of you were on the front steps. 

“You look like…” Seto hummed absently as he squinted at the projection of the girl, you assumed he was merely making an observation to distract himself rather than insult you, but you weren’t positive. 

“A walking disaster?” You raised an eyebrow, “Got the pants at a consignment shop and James gave me the shirt. Pretty sure I stole the shoes from someone’s locker.”

Pretty sure wasn’t quite accurate, you were positive you’d stolen them. Eihara Nobusuke, 36, employed as a guard at the lab for a total of four years in Omachi. Hired by Gozaburo Kaiba himself, she was the walking definition of cruelty. Even if you were on your best behavior, she would find a reason to slam you into a wall or trip you to the ground escorting you to and from your cell. When the lab erupted into chaos following Seto’s takeover, she had been one of the first casualties. You hadn’t known about her death at the time that you stole her shoes. You just took them from the equipment room because they happened to be your size. 

“What happened to your hair?” Mokuba asked softly. 

“What didn’t happen to it?” You responded noncommittally.

The girl you’d been commenting on seemed to unfreeze, and ran a hand along the face of the front door. She looked at the mailbox, attached to the face of the house with a pair of silver screws, and pulled out the stack of letters with a confused expression. She flipped through a few of them before shaking her head and setting them in one hand, pushing open your front door with the other. 

“I’m home!” She called into the foyer, dimly lit only by the clouded light entering the windows. 

Silence. 

“Mom? Dad?” She tried again, setting the stack of mail on the small table near the door. The three of you followed after her slowly, the boys looking around the inside of the house as you walked. It was relatively clean, aside from the pile of dishes in the kitchen sink and the recycling that had piled up and spilled over in the room adjacent. Seto ran a finger along one of the shelves and examined the layer of dust that came away on his finger. He looked like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. 

Your former self opened up the door that lead to the garage, and the sound of a light switch clicked but didn’t seem to do anything. She tried it a few more times, before sighing, and descending the stairs in the dark. From the doorway you three watched her fiddle with an old dresser drawer before it gave, and she produced from it a flashlight. Shaking it a few times, she flipped it on and began scanning the garage. The lightbulb on the ceiling was intact, probably just needed to be changed, and aside from the cobwebs in the corners of the room and the dust on the floor, it looked like a normal garage. Two cars, one black BMW and one white Nissan, sat side by side, facing away from the double garage doors. 

“That’s weird, both their cars are here,” the girl you’d once been muttered aloud, “Did they go for a walk?”

She quickly exited the garage, brushing past the three of you without paying you any mind and shutting the door behind her. She then began examining the kitchen, sniffing the sink before a look of regret crossed her face and she coughed in the opposite direction. You remembered, at this point, the confusion had still been eclipsing worry. The house was dirty, but not filthy, and the few days of mail in the box was strange but not worrying. It looked like a family who had left for vacation in a hurry, forgetting to do the dishes before they left.

She continued through the kitchen and back to the foyer, about to head upstairs before something caught the corner of her eye in the living room. She paused on the first step, slowly descended, and decided to searched the rest of the first floor before going up. The three of you continued to follow, though before entering the living room Mokuba gave a tight squeeze to your hand, and you glanced down at him. 

“Are you okay?” He asked. 

You managed a nod.

“Oh my… no way.” Came the voice from the living room, and you noticed Seto had already entered. You and Mokuba followed, finding him standing next to the girl you’d once been, eyes fixed on a small shrine set up on the far wall. Contrary to the rest of the living room, which was somewhat dusty and needed a good vacuuming, the shrine was in impeccable shape. It was an ornate wooden box, gold detailing on the corners and tiny paper lanterns glowing with electric, golden light. Inside, a picture of your late mother, her hands clasped together and a bright smile on her face, taken when she was five years younger and you had not yet been taken away.

Seto turned to you as you reached his side, questions burning in his sapphire eyes and arms crossed over his chest, one hand gripping the inside of his arm so tightly you could see in shaking. He looked like he wanted to ask, and you wondered why he didn’t. You’d never known him to be this considerate of anyone’s feelings, yours included, even when he was a kid.

“My mom killed herself fourteen months after Gozaburo sent me away,” you said calmly, keeping your voice steady and focusing only on the facts as you spoke lest your memory run wild and do something to the simulation you were standing in. “Some pier workers found her body floating in the water two days later. Your step-father refused my dad time to grieve, as it happened in the middle of some big company project, and he fell apart. Probably why the house ended up in this state.” You gestured to the room around you.

“If Noah believes I’m to blame for that, he’s insane.”

Your former self had taken to lighting an incense stick from the pile beside the shrine. She placed her hands together and said a silent prayer for her-- your-- mother, paused for a moment, and finally turned to head up the stairs. The three of you followed after her.

“Oh, believe me, I blame Gozaburo for everything that happened to my family. Not you.” You replied.

Seto hummed in response as he reached the top of the stairs. Mokuba was still clutching your hand, his grip tightening as he watched the girl scan the hallway, pushing open the first door on her left. You remembered this sequence clearly, and let out a long sigh as she went from door to door. Bathroom, empty. Guest room, empty. Guest bathroom, empty.

You hadn’t noticed your heart was pounding until you could hear it in your ears, and your jaw tightening when she opened the door to her room. Your room. Empty, but still exactly as it had been the day you had been taken away. Seto had followed closely after her, but you and Mokuba remained at the top of the stairs. He tried to take a few steps forward, but you had a firm grip on his hand, and since you refused to move he could not follow his brother. Refused to move… couldn’t move? They began to blur. 

Office, empty. 

Study, empty.

Laundry room, empty.

The final door at the end of the hall, your parents’ bedroom, closed and locked. 

“Dad?” The girl called, knocking on the door. Silence. She attempted to turn the handle, then attempted to brace herself against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. She groaned loudly, walking down the hall briskly to one of the bathrooms, your bathroom, to dig around in the shelves. Bobby pins, she was looking for, and she would find the old box of girls hair accessories with plenty inside. Seto continued to stand by your parents’ bedroom door, and you and Mokuba remained at the stairs.

“What are you doing?” Seto demanded from down the hall. 

“We were all required to learn how to pick locks,” you replied, “with common things like bobby pins and paper clips.”

There was a pause, a confused look crossing his features briefly at your statement before he shook his head. “No, I mean you. Why are you two standing there?”

“I…” you paused, looking down at the wood floor beneath your feet, “I’m not going in there. I’ve seen… enough.”

“What’s in there?” He pressed.

You opened your mouth, but all that came out was a half-breath from your throat. You weren’t able to form the thought of what you’d last seen in this house, much less the words to describe it. Yet when you squeezed your eyes shut, the image burned itself to the back of your eyelids. Your parents bedroom was the largest room in the house, larger than the kitchen, even. When they had built the place, your mother insisted to builders it be inspired by Western architecture. Victorian, mainly, but there were a few elements she had seen in homes she had visited in Europe. Exposed beams on the ceiling was something she wanted in her bedroom, especially with the high Victorian style roof.

“Aha!” Your former self cried, before dashing out of the bathroom with a handful of bobby pins. She dropped them on the floor at Seto’s feet and took one in her hand, bending it into a tension wrench, before taking a second to turn into a makeshift lock pick. She then set to work on the door, squinting into the darkness as she made use of the tools. It couldn’t have taken more than a minute, you wondered if that was really how quickly you worked or if you were remembering yourself faster than you truly were. 

“Seto,” you said, “Maybe… don’t look in there.”

He scoffed dismissively, “Noah won’t let us out of here until I do. Besides, whatever you’re so afraid of me seeing can’t possibly be--”

His voice died the second your former self pushed open the door. From your spot on the steps, you and Mokuba could not see inside, and you were perfectly content with that. Mokuba tugged at your hand again to try to drag you along, but you only tightened your grip to keep him firmly in place.

“Nii-sama, what is it?” He demanded with a grunt, trying again to pull you along before he saw the glare on your face. He shrunk back from your stare, a mix of confusion and annoyance on his face as he did so. 

Seto was silent, you saw him staring into the room, mouth still half-open from the sentence he had been in the middle of. Beside him, the girl you’d once been stood in shock, her pose almost the same as his as her wide eyes fixated on one spot in the middle of the room, suspended from the ground. 

Your phone buzzed. 

Whether you wanted to look at it or not, you couldn’t move.

Mokuba’s arm went slack and he stopped tugging when the girl fell to her knees, a scream caught in her throat but unable to come out, hands trembling at her side. Seto somehow managed to look at you, and you stared back at him. His eyes were such a vibrant, brilliant shade of blue. The prettiest blue you’d ever seen. The color you never wanted to look away from. 

You didn’t know long you stared. You didn’t remember, exactly how long this moment lasted when it happened to you, how long you’d sat on your knees and just stared. The details were a little fuzzy, time hadn’t felt quite right. It had felt long, but it couldn’t have possibly been that long. You didn’t really remember. 

She began sobbing on the ground.

Seto looked down at her, then into the room again, before he walked inside. You didn’t know why, why on earth, he would ever want to go inside of there, but he did. You continued to stare at the spot his eyes had been until he returned, which he did after only forty-three seconds. You counted. He had a piece of paper in his hand, one which he had seemingly crumpled in either anger or frustration. 

The scene began to dissolve around you, the sound of your younger self’s sobs dying down into nothingness. You stared at Seto while the damask walls around you rippled and shifted to make way for golden, open air, bits of sand catching in the warm wind that blew across your face. The wood at your feet, you saw out of your peripheral vision, made way for a blanket of sand, while the roof over your head became clouded sky. You watched his pupils shrink as it got brighter, revealing more of the sapphire shine beneath. He smoothed the paper a bit, before folding it twice and tucking it away into his jacket pocket. Mokuba realized your grip had loosened and he slipped his fingers from yours. Your house disappeared, and the three of you found yourselves in a desert.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember when I was like 'no more flashback chapters because it's virtual world time'? Yeah this is why. OwO  
> Taking some liberties with the reader's backstory but I mean... considering the backstory that I've already formed of her I don't think it's too far fetched? Hopefully you guys are still feeling it! Let me know <3


	22. A Structured Deception

You’d gone from forest to sand, which you supposed was a welcome change of scenery, but you really wished Noah would come up with something more creative. Everywhere the three of you walked so far had been dull landscapes painted in only one or two colors, and it was starting to depress you. 

That was probably the point, considering the myriad of painful memories he was forcing Seto, Mokuba, and now you, to relive. The monotony of walking for hours on end in onenote surroundings of dreary hues was probably just to annoy your best friend. And considering his face had been stuck in a glare for the last ten minutes at least, it seemed like it was working. 

The three of you had a silent agreement not to talk about what you’d seen in your old, empty house. You had no desire to talk about it, and considering Seto had actually seen your parents’ bedroom first hand, rather what the room was holding, he seemed content not to bring it up either. Mokuba was understandably curious about the whole thing. He had run up to Seto at one point during the walk and asked what was in the room, though his big brother was unwilling to answer, and instead insisted if you wanted him to know you would tell him yourself. Just to get him to stop asking, and partially because you felt like you needed to get it off your chest, you had cleared your throat, and uttered the words. 

“My father killed himself two days before I came home.”

After that, he too joined in the silence. It stretched on for what felt like hours, but your concept of time seemed even more messed up after leaving that house. You’d been forced to watch a few more of the brothers’ childhood memories, ones mainly revolving around Seto’s studies or his interactions with Gozaburo. One of them was one you were pleasantly familiar with, the first time you had met the two boys at a company party in the Kaiba mansion. It was a memory you thought over often during your time at the lab. It was after that memory that each of you seemed to be in a bit of a better mood, your silence out of choice rather than necessity. 

Eventually the three of you stopped atop one of the many sand dunes you had been walking on, spotting a large cluster of silver buildings in the distance. You had no idea what they were, but considering the way Seto was frowning in recognition, you wondered if you should have.

“What is that?” You asked after a moment of silence. 

“Alcatraz.” 

“ _Nii-sama_ had it destroyed after he took over,” Mokuba said, a proud grin on his face, “Since Kaiba Corp. doesn’t make weapons anymore.” 

You nodded in satisfaction as a gust of wind blew through the landscape, causing the back of Seto’s trench coat to blow behind him dramatically. He folded his arms over his chest and hummed in thought, before beginning to speak aloud to no one in particular. 

“This Noah kid seems to be obsessed with me,” he mused, a smirk on his face, “I suppose I should feel honored.”

You snickered into your palm, as did Mokuba. 

“Still, he’s wasting my time with these games.” He pointed his face to the sky and raised his voice, “Noah, I’ve got a tournament to run, so get to the point and show yourself already!”

The landscape became silent after the echoes of Seto’s words died down beneath the wind, though the three of you stared up at the sky for a moment longer, as if you could will Noah to face you. When Seto seemingly had enough of standing around, he began walking in the direction of the buildings and waved for you and Mokuba to follow him. Your phone vibrated in your pocket, and you sighed. You’d ignored the last six vibrations, and though you really wanted to with this one as well, you were a bit afraid if you did so Noah would begin ignoring you if you needed to talk to him. You pulled out the phone and scanned the messages you’d missed.

`♡: You know whenever you get bored of wandering, just say the word. I’ll make you a door so you can watch another one of my little movies. `

`♡: Since you seem to hate the forest so much I thought a change in scenery was in order. This way, Seto can see how much pain he's caused you. I know you want him to, even if you won't admit it. `

`♡: Oh, are you ignoring me now? `

`♡: Did I do something to make you upset? Well, I mean, other than bringing you here. I know it’s not under the most ideal circumstances, but I was hoping you’d be happy to see me. `

Did he do something wrong? Was he serious? Dropping both you and your friends into your old home to relive the day you’d come home only to discover both your parents dead didn’t jump out at him as doing something wrong? Regardless of if it wasn't part of the deal the two of you had made, the fact that he had the nerve to bring that memory to light made your blood boil. And for what? To make Seto feel guilty? He hadn’t had any part in your parents’ deaths, that had been all Gozaburo.

`♡: I’ll apologize if you want me to. `

Yes, you did want him to. And then you wanted him to erase the memory from both the brothers’ minds. And then you wanted him to let you all go. You sighed to yourself and interrupted your thoughts before you got too heated. After scrolling through the messages for a moment with a mix of annoyance and anger, finally, the newest message appeared.

`♡: You know, I’ve been lonely in here for a very long time. I’m sure you know what that feels like. I was excited to finally have a friend to talk to again. `

You frowned down at the message, biting at the inside of your cheek as you read, then reread it a second time. You couldn’t tell if he was being serious or not. He was probably just trying to mess with your head, he clearly didn’t care about you. But at the same time… you hadn’t seen Noah in six years, just days before he was in the accident that ended his life. Or, so you were told. If he had actually been in this virtual world for six years, he was right, you could absolutely understand the loneliness of being trapped in isolation. Maybe, you thought, that was why he was doing this. Maybe he’d gone mad from being inside this virtual prison for so long.

Still, regardless of his reasons or what might have happened to him, what he was doing was wrong. Trapping innocent people in this crazy virtual world and threatening to hold them inside of it forever, showing all these memories to Seto and Mokuba just to torture them, there was no way to justify it. And yet as you told yourself that over and over again the urge to respond to his message continued to grow.

“What on earth are you looking at?” A low baritone spoke above you. You glanced up from your phone to see Seto eyeing you curiously. 

“Uh… cell phone,” you replied, waving it in the air a bit.

“Yes I know what it is. Why do you keep pulling it out?” 

Shit. You really did not want to tell him Noah had been texting you, for more reasons than you could count. First off, if Seto knew you’d been in contact with their kidnapper, he would probably kill you. Second, even if he didn’t kill you, you’d be expected to explain how you knew Noah, and doing so would give your former friend every reason in the world to put on display all your memories from the lab. And at this point, after dealing with them going through one of your memories, not even the most painful, you would do anything to keep them to yourself. 

“Checking to see if I can get a hold of anyone outside,” you replied as casually as you could.

Seto didn’t seem to notice the lie, instead scoffing at you, “We’re trapped in a virtual world. What makes you think you’ll be able to contact anyone?” 

You shrugged, “I don’t think I will, but it makes me feel better to at least try.”

He frowned at your words. 

“Do you want me to stop trying, and risk missing an opportunity to tell my people we’re stuck in here?” 

At that he sighed, conceding to your point, and dropped the subject entirely. He returned his gaze straight ahead, staring at the dull silver buildings you were all making your way toward. You looked back at your phone in relief, although your chest felt heavy from the lie you’d had to tell. Eventually it was going to come back to bite you, you just knew it, but if it meant keeping those memories of the lab away from the brothers, so be it. You couldn’t bare to relive them again, especially not with Seto or Mokuba around to see them as well. 

`How long have you been in here? `

You hit send hesitantly, your brain still deciding if you wanted to continue talking to your former friend but your fingers making the decision for you. It might give you some insight into why he seemed so callous to your and the Kaiba brothers’ emotions. Almost instantaneously, a reply appeared on your screen.

`♡: Six years. `

You’d figured as much. It justified nothing, and you were still pissed. You needed to keep in contact with him, if only to continue getting information, but he might cut it all off if you chewed him out for the memory he’d shown. After a moment of thought, you couldn’t come up with anything to say in response, so you simply sent him the message of `I’m sorry. `

`♡: You don’t need to apologize. Anyway, I’m glad you’re talking to me again. `

`I can’t message you too often, or Seto will get suspicious. I’m supposed to be keeping your secret, remember? `

`♡: Of course. And I appreciate it. `

`I have more questions for you, if that’s alright. I’ll send them later. `

With that, you clicked off the screen and slipped your phone back into your pocket. It buzzed immediately, probably in reply to your final message, but you ignored it. Seto glanced over to you, one eyebrow raised as if to inquire on if you’d had any success. You shook your head, and he once again went back to looking in front of him. Your phone buzzed again. You ignored it.

\-----

You kept staring at him.

He thought, at first, your staring had something to do with the house you’d been in. You had stared at him barely blinkling throughout the last few moments of it, which he had welcomed as it gave him something to look at other than the body. He’d originally dismissed it as you being shaken from the memory, but thinking back, he was positive you’d been staring at him for longer than that. Then, he realized you’d been doing it since seeing the memory of him in Gozaburo’s office, since he’d talked about his virtual software and how his stepfather stole it for the purposes of war. There was this spark of emotion in your eyes Seto couldn’t quite decipher, one that hadn’t been there before, or at least that he hadn’t noticed. And, now, it wouldn’t go away.

It was like you wanted to say something, but you wouldn’t. Presumably, you wanted to tell him something about that software. Why else would you be staring at him like that? He doubted you had something to tell him about his technology that he didn’t already know, so maybe you wanted to ask him a question. What could you possibly know about it that he didn’t?

Unless….

He said your name and your head snapped upward obediently, eyes meeting his in an instant. You stopped fiddling with your combat knife and let your hands fall to your sides. 

“What’s up?” You asked.

“Have you ever experienced this technology before?” 

You looked confused by his question. 

“This virtual technology,” Seto clarified, “The technology Gozaburo stole from me.” 

“Are you… asking if I’ve ever been in a virtual world before this?” 

“Or something similar, yes.”

You shook your head, “No, can’t say I have. I don’t have a lot of time for games, with work and all.”

“I don’t just mean for games,” he pressed. He was trying to be vague, considering Mokuba was walking with the two of you. To his knowledge, you hadn’t told his brother about your time in the lab yet, and he didn’t want to expose that secret. At least, not right now, not considering where you all were. Seto needed you to be in peak condition with how dangerous this place was, he couldn’t risk you having some sort of post-traumatic meltdown while you were at Noah’s whims. Not after you’d had to relive discovering your parents’ suicides. 

After you squinted at him in thought for a few, long moments, you shook your head again, “Sorry, I really haven’t ever been in a virtual world before. If I had, I’d tell you.” 

“And you’ve never dealt with any technology similar to this?” 

“I’m telling you no.” You huffed, frustration now apparent in your tone. 

Seto sighed down at you, before finally nodding and returning his gaze to the buildings of Alcatraz. He believed you, clearly you had no idea what he was talking about. He’d thought, maybe, Gozaburo had used his technology in the labs for testing or training purposes, but that didn’t seem to be the case. If it was, you weren’t aware of it. So then what could you possibly have to tell him about his virtual software? Or, was he mistaken, did you have something else to tell him? But you’d gotten that look in your eye right after he spoke about his technology, so what else could possibly be making you look at him so emotionally? 

Damn it all, you were going to drive him crazy before Noah had the chance to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dag nabbit Kaiba you dense motherfucker.


End file.
